Hey everyone. Yes, I am writing a new blog, since the last blog I wrote that I deleted and will never mention again due to getting s*** for it. Here is something that lots of you might get a kick out of. Looking forward to the Avengers movie coming out? Guess what, I made a Channel Awesome spoof of the first trailer. The members I chose for this fan-made trailer are Linkara, Angry Joe, Erod, Film Brain, Iron Liz, Spoony, and Nash. I make an appearance as the spoof equivalent of Nick Fury. I am not a reviewer for this site, but I could not find clips with a good speech (where Fury is explaining why he is assembling the team). So I took the liberty of filling that role. The trailer is not perfect, and I only mean to have fun with it. By the way, if you want to know why I chose these members for the trailer, read the description in the video. One more thing, there is not one video, but two. Both with alternate endings; one with Spoony filling in for the Hulk, and the other with Nash in response to a fan art mentioned on one of his radio episodes (look in the description for details). Let me know what you think here or on YouTube, I mostly read the comments on Youtube, but if you guys are gonna go Douchy McNitpick on me, I will find you....................no not really, but please be nice, this is only for fun.
Nash Version:http://youtu.be/n18U3KyEy-I
Spoony Version: http://youtu.be/ZP9_baMDtw0
I've not usually been fair to atheists and
agnostics, mostly because I don't "get" the things they believe. After
all, there's no text or book or listed teaching either groups could
point to if somebody wanted to know more about the atheistic or agnostic
belief system. Their belief systems are primarily based off of, simply,
a lack of believing in God.
HOWEVER there is one BIG thing that
DOES often come hand-in-hand with much atheistic and agnostic thinking,
and that's philosophy, and I LOVE philosophy. I enjoy debates
about good and evil, taking a look at morality and ethical natures,
looking at the "Why" of people and actions.
But it can be hard
to find stories in popular culture that do this right. The average
philosophical story is usually a stuffy tome from the 16th century that
hasn't aged well, or is simply too anvilicious. I admit, I've gotten
that way before with MY own works, something I regret about "Ozai". I
think it started out really, really well, and I was doing pretty damn
good for a while, but the more Coraline became a strawman psychopathic
tyrant who was too big for her britches, the more everyone ELSE got
dragged down with her. I know how hard it can be to tell a story
involving philosophy on a level that, whilst interwoven with a good
tale, doesn't DOMINATE it.
But guess what?
You're not
gonna believe this. But its true. A video game...for the PC...and from
the 90's...has actually done an EXCELLENT job of doing just that:
integrating philosophy, morality and ethics into a game without it
totally dominating the gameplay AND by being surprisingly subtle!
I refer to the series known as...Ultima. That's right. The series Spoony's done so many excellent reviews on.
Wait. You haven't seen them? Well here's
how the story goes. You're the "Avatar", a human from Earth pulled into
a fantasy land with magic, amazing creatures (hell, there are talking
foxes and horses) and wondrous sights. Originally called Sosaria, it was
renamed Britannia after Lord British, its new ruler, who decided to
unite all the people within the land under his rule.
And yes.
This guy IS from the British Isles. He's an Earthling like you! Neat,
huh? See, he was depressed about how the United Kingdom seemed too
preoccupied with wealth and greed. This idealist discovered Sosaria by
accident one day and actually helped introduce magic into the world.
However he decided to do more than this. After the game Ultima III, when
the Avatar had defeated the deadly demonic force Exodus, spawn of the
evil magicians Minax and Mondain, British got an idea to help better the
lives of those in Britannia. He created a whole new belief system
called The Eight Virtues, and based it all around teachings from his own kind of "Bible" called "The Codex of Infinite Wisdom".
He
built three great castles, dedicated to the Principles of Truth, Love
and Courage were founded, and he further established Shrines to these
abstracts on the Isle of Fire, although the land that housed them later
sank into the ocean. Furthermore, of the major cities of the new
Britannia was dedicated to the study of one of the newly established
Eight Virtues which British helped to codify. Hoping to further unite
the people in the ways of his new ethical system, the king put forward
the Quest of the Avatar, hoping to establish a champion which would
embody all virtue at once. And yes, the Avatar (you, the player of the
games), were the one to fit the bill.
So what ARE the Virtues? Well, they're all tied into the three Principles: Truth, Love and Courage. And they break down as such:
It's a good system, really, and a cinch to live by.
Don't steal, donate to charity, be nice, all that stuff. And after the
end of Ultima IV, you went back to Earth, satisfied that you'd brought a
philosophy of peace, love and understanding to a whole new world and
nobody was ever gonna be unhappy ever-
Then Ultima V came out.
See, Lord British kind of was a glutton for punishment. He always seems
like the sort of person who feels like he's got so much to make up for,
and quite possibly he DOES, so he felt that since he'd just created a
grand philosophy for all his people, there was only one thing left to do
to REALLY make everyone safe as possible: descend into all the dungeons
of the land and vanquish all the demons within!.......unfortunately, he
never comes back, and his advisor, Lord Blackthorn, takes over.
Blackthorn
is, unfortunately, corrupted by three dark lords of foul emotions, the
Shadowlords, he decided that the Virtues couldn't just be guidelines, but the LAW. And...well...he went the moral absolutist route.
Now
at FIRST you might not think this is so bad. I mean, what's so awful
about having virtues like compassion and justice and honor being
mandatory? It might seem restrictive, but if everyone really DOES follow
the virtues to the letter, everyone would live happily ever
after!...only the problem is, Blackthorn's corrupted the Virtues. His
law of Honor? "Thou shalt fight to the death or be banished a coward!"
His law of Sacrifice? "Thou shalt donate half thy income to Charity or
thou shalt HAVE no income". Blackthorn's law of Honesty? "Thou shalt not
lie or thy shall loseth thy TONGUE"!
Suddenly the Virtues are beginning to SUUUUCK.
But luckily, the Avatar puts an end to all of this and Lord British is
restored to the throne. But then, in Ultima VI, things get worse. Yeah,
worse than having an entire land being placed under a harsh, repressive
rule of twisted moral absolutism. Demonic beings are pouring out of the
dungeons and tearing Britannia apart! Lord British insists that the
Avatar save Britannia and slay the demonic hordes, but not all is at its
seems.
You see, this new demonic race, the Gargoyles, aren't
really EVIL, they're just out of ideas. Their homeland is dying ever
since YOU stole their most righteous holy book, the Codex of
Infinite Wisdom. And guess what? They learned three different Principles
from the Codex.
Diligence, Passion and Control. That's
right! There's ANOTHER philosophy that a whole other race follows and
they've got their whole other series of virtues that follow these
principles too. The Gargish people are kinda like Muslims in a sense:
their species is regularly insulted and downgraded by the more racist
members of Britannia, their customs seem strange and weird, they don't
have the best grasp on the English language, and they have a bad history
of jihad and murder. So how did they create these Principles?
Well,
see...they took them from the "Triad of Evil" that the Avatar defeated,
Mondain, Minax and Exodus. Mondain, the great sorcerer who in his
thirst to exert dominance over the world lost his hold on his own sense
of self, came to represent the ideal of Control, which had been the
focus of his life and works. Likewise, his paramour, Minax who had been
driven to acts of desperate evil by her grief for his death, came to
embody Passion. Their progeny, the daemon-machine Exodus who had coolly
and meticulously studied the world around it for decades that it might
avenge them, was the living representation of Diligence.
So
yeah, their philosophy is kinda questionable at best. At least British
actually had a Codex he got the inspiration for the virtues for. But to
be honest, the Gargoyles are, for the most part, really nice once you
get past their appearance and slightly temperamental attitudes. And
after Ultima VI, the people of Britannia are more accepting of them.
But
then comes Ultima VII, one of the best games I've EVER played, believe
me. You return to Britannia to find 200 years have passed and...the
Virtues are kinda forgotten, replaced with a belief system called "The
Fellowship", which is less about introspection, spirituality and the
like and more about going to churches on sunday and passing collection
plates around. They follow a teaching called "Sanguine Cognition",
listening to one's "inner voice" and following three simple tenets, The Triad of Inner Strength, consisting of three rules:
Now
at first, the Fellowship seems harmless. Admittedly, I was...depressed
upon returning to Britannia. I mean, I'd saved the world time and time
again, I'd helped to form a philosophy of truth, love and courage. I'd
been trying to stand up as this ideal of goodness and decency, and what
do they do after just 200 years? They follow a fat guy in a goatee's
teachings! What the HELL?!? How can the world move on like this so...GOD!
Oh, but it gets worse. The Fellowship's friggin' EVIL.
They're the bad guys! "Strive for Unity"? Here's the deal: The
Fellowship consider themselves an elite group, and a prejudicial one at
that. They tend to believe that if one is not for them, then they are
indeed against them! And if one is against them, then may fortune be
with that person, for he/she may very well come to a bad end! And they
usually DO. Wanna know what they'll do to you? Kill your ass, rip your
legs and arms and head off, and COLLECT YOUR BLOOD IN BUCKETS. I
am DEAD serious. This is a game from the 90's, on the PC, showing people
VIOLENTLY EVISCERATED WITH THEIR BLOOD COLLECTED IN BUCKETS.
And
"Trust Thy Brother"? This implies that each member trusts implicitly
other Fellowship members, and that each will do favors or deeds for
another without question. On the other hand, this might mean that a
member should do what another says REGARDLESS of the implications of the
act. In other words, `do as I say and do not question it!' seems to be
the underlying subtext of this tenet.
Finally, we come to
"Worthiness Precedes Reward". If one does good deeds for The Fellowship,
then one will be rewarded. The other side of the coin, of course, is
that if one does NOT do good deeds for The Fellowship, then one will get
his JUST reward! In The Fellowship, a `reward' can be either `good' or
`bad'! And you see a LOT of "bad" rewards. BUCKETS OF BLOOD, people.
The
Fellowship is really all about one thing: trying to build a blackrock
gate that will allow their dark god, the sadistic and malevolent Guardian
to come in and conquer Britannia like he's done to countless worlds. So
yeah, there's a LOT of philosophy flung around in these games, a lot of
systems of beliefs that are constantly popping up, and it's fascinating
to learn more about the worlds you're playing in and the systems of
belief you're presented with, yet the game never feels like its beating
you over the head with a message. It's all genuinely fascinating and
fun...plus there's LOADS of hilarious stuff, like unicorns being used as
virgin detectors for a guy who's girlfriend wants to know if he's
cheated on him, male prostitutes who'll be happy to "gargle your
marbles" and nudist colonists living in a cave filled with giant bees!
Seriously. There's a nudist colony in Ultima VII. And they made it in
the same place as a cave of giant bees.
Oh, and there's an
entire castle where the people wherein are, literally, the cast from
"Star Trek: The Next Generation". And the secondary Big Bad of the game?
Captain Hook. I am DEAD serious. He's got a hook for a hand. He wears
pirate garb. He has a dead crocodile he killed in his room. It is
TOTALLY Captain Hook. This is friggin' AWESOMESAUCE, folks!
Then
we get to the sequel to Ultima VII, the Black Gate, known as "Serpent
Isle". See, the Avatar's vanquished the Guardian, but is trying to seek
out the Gaurdian's main man, Batlin, founder of the Fellowship, on the
strange land called the Serpent Isle, home to the Ophidian people. Or at
least, it was. They're all gone, replaced with people who took off from
Britannia shortly after Lord British took the throne because they
didn't agree with his Eight Virtues and wanted to create their OWN way
of life.
Now at first, you might think "Geez, what an asshole
this guy British is"! He forced his own philosophy on an entire world,
and anybody who had a problem with he told them to outright get the hell
out"? Well, yeah. They all either left or got exiled if they had a
problem with the Virtues. Again, you might be thinking British is a jerk
for not even TRYING to give these guys the freedom to create their own
belief system...except for one little problem.
Everyone on
Serpent Isle divided themselves into three large cities devoted to three
different tenets of their own. What are they? Courage, Beauty
and...well, Magic. So they basically stole one Virtue, ignored the
importance of another and choosing physical beauty over anything else,
like, say, the paltry thing of unconditional love, and the third city,
home to mages? They only care about magical power. Their founder left
Britannia because he wanted to be immortal. Monitor, City of Courage,
SORT of had a decent idea in focusing on that virtue, but...well...the
whole entirety of Serpent Isle is filled with vain assholes, prickish
jerks who are pompous, racist "All mages are better than you" types, and
ignorant boobs who have demonized Lord British into "Beast British", so
much so that they're willing to kill you just for being associated with
him. I am SO serious. The people in Monitor only care about fighting,
the people in Fawn only care about being beautiful and hate anything
that isn't, and the people of Moonshade, city of Mages, only care about
getting power by any means necessary!
You know what? As bad as things
got in Britannia, at least the average schmuck was TRYING to live a
decent life. Even though Lord British is flawed, at least he TRIED to create something that would help his people live good and righteous lives. At least he TRIES to be a good and decent king. He genuinely CARES about all of his citizens. Heck, he even starts caring about the Gargoyle Race after Ultima VI is finished. He's made mistakes, yes, but at least he tried to do the right thing through it all, even if the way he went about it was wrong. But these guys? These people on Serpent Isle? These people are self-indulgent jackasses!
AND
one of them poisoned me whilst I was getting her to give me a tattoo!
I'm STILL pissed about that! I mean REALLY?! POISONING me just cuz you
don't like my boss? Screw you, lady! TASTE MY BLADE!
Oh,
but there's one other belief system in Ultima: The Ophidian Virtues,
centered around the Philosophy of Balance, passed down by the Chaos
Serpent, Order Serpent and Earth Serpent of Balance. Yes. Snakes are God
in the Ultima series, well, kinda. They're the living serpentine
embodiment of Chaos, Order and Balance, and if Balance doesn't keep the,
well, balance between Order and Chaos, then s--t goes down. And
that's just what happens! In the "Serpent Isle" game, the Earth Serpent
of Balance goes missing and the Chaos and Order serpent fight. Order
wins and KILLS Chaos, but this drives it insane. The whole damn universe
begins tearing itself apart as a result, with storms teleporting random
objects and people around, earthquakes ripping through the land, lands
burning to the ground, its bad, folks, its really bad! And since
NOBODY'S following the Philosophy of Balance now that the Ophidians are
all gone, who's gonna help the Great Earth Serpent restore the universe?
You are! You become the "Hierophant" of the Ophidian Virtues.
Again,
ANOTHER belief system, but this time the thing's based off teachings
from, well, a deity! A giant, snakey deity, but still, like the Virtues,
the thing's founded on real Truth! And what ARE the Ophidian Virtues?
Now,
these things aren't goals by themselves. Each of the Forces has to be
balanced by a Force of the opposing principle. When combined by pairs,
these Forces form the three Principles of Balance, and EACH of the three
Principles of Balance is then what the followers of this system should
strive to achieve, the Principles being Harmony, Dedication and Rationality,
The ability to be at peace with the self, the individual and the world,
the ability which permits one to surmount obstacles and lead others and
the ability to comprehend life and understand the world around us,
respectively.
There's just so many complexities to be found in
here. You really get a good look at what happens when good morality and
bad morality are integrated with government, and what happens when the
right AND wrong people are in charge. You see what happens when people
try to integrate belief systems into their lives and how it can make
life better or worse, and you see a real scale of just how important
good beliefs are, what happens when extremes take control of people's
lives, and just how a difference one person can make. The games are an
excellent examination of philosophy integrated with excellent and
charming gameplay...and, as I said before, there's TONS of funny little
easter eggs. The Ultima series is really, really fun.
One
problem though: good luck trying to get your games to play on any PC
system nowadays. Your computers can't really work the games the way they
used to. Unless, of course, you've got DOSBOX, like I did from
going to GOG.Com. But still, I highly recommend this series. You're
playing a hero that's invoking a philosophy that doesn't really invoke
any kind of God, essentially, a humanist, vaguely agnostic hero who
strives to represent the best in human ideals! I LOVE this idea. So if
you get the chance, seriously, check it out. And if you're still unsure
of whether you'd like it, then I recommend you go to the Spoony
Experiment's website to look at his Ultima Retrospective series, which
helped introduce me to the series. It's a damn good examination of the
series AND pretty bleepin' funny too.
Well, until next time!
Take care, and may virtue guide thee! I needed a good "Avatar" to play
as to get my mind off that awful duo of "Avatar" movies. Thankfully
"Ultima" provided. Ultima giveth and taketh away. Blessed be the name of
Ultima. ^_^
Just a little something I spent a good part of Sunday working on: A fan-made trailer for the upcoming Year 4 event occurring later this year. I do not own the footage or music, they belong to Doug Walker, Lewis Lovhaug, Lindsay Ellis, and the rest of Channel Awesome. Please forgive the crappy quality, the best I've got for making videos is Windows Live Movie Maker. Oh, and the cameo I make at the end is not meant to be taken seriously, it was just a joke.
This is a list that I decided to do for fun. A list of some of my favorite video games, games I still hold in my position.
Be they retro, classic, or even current. These won't be too big of a list, and no real numbering order, just me talking about what I like.
1:Shadowrun:Snes and Sega.
I know I've mentioned these games in an old blog of mine, but these have got to be the best, and really the only real Shadowrun games ever. Both are very different in terms of:Story, game play, characters, use of magic, hacking, traveling, well every thing really.
I imagine you'd have a hard time deciding which is the better version. But you could make the argument that the Sega version is better. However, as a fan of Shadowrun, find both versions.
2:Super smash brothers series:N64, Game cube, and Wii.
If you love fighting games, one that's easy to play, and a lot fun, then check this one out. Hell, how often can you play a game where you have Mario, Link, Marth, Captain Falcon, Solid Fucking Snake beating the shit out of each other?!
I can't wait for the next installment!
3:Deus Ex:Human revolution:PS3.
As soon as I heard about this game from Angry Joe, and Spoony, I knew I had to check it out. And I love it. Make no mistake, this game is impossible if you don't know what your doing. Namely, you can't just walk into a room with one or more bad guys, and expect to kill everyone with no problems. You are sorely mistaken.
Stealth is the key, despite that, this game is a lot of fun.
You know whats interesting though?
I long for a sequel. But not only this, after playing this, and regarding something that Birdman Dod mentioned on Twitter. Why can't they make a Shadowrun game like this? Good question sir.
4:Legacy of Kain series:Ps1, and PS2.
I wrote a previous blog on this series too, how I would love to see this series remade with next gen graphics, and more of an open world feel.
A great story, with great voice work. Come on, Simon Templeman as Kain, you can't go wrong with that voice.
And many other great voices too. Some interesting puzzles, great twists, and some good combat. If you can find them, check them out. A great series that was never finished.
Hope you guys like it :)
Seeing the Warrior #4 review inspired me to design my own symbol for the Gray Lantern Corps.
What do you think? :)
Here is my review of the Aninite 2011 Convention in Vienna were I met Doug and Spoony.
Click here:
Just wanted to share a conversion I made to a model for a wargame we play
Original thread here: http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?78024-Storm-Stridin-with-Doctor-Insano
...
Hello and welcome to In Too Deep, where I over-analyse a certain section of pop culture.
Myths and Legends are handed down from person to person, so it makes sense that video games have more than a few! Here's our list of the Top 5!
These are just random shots I compiled together from Phelous' videos and some members of thatguywiththeglasses.com. I don't have a blip account yet, so this will have to do.
Here's to another year of TGWTG awesomeness, and another year of total obscurity for me!
My friends and I went to Magfest 9 this January. Here is a video showcase of our experience.
Including our "Bring Back Crystal Pepsi" at Magfest experience.
Pat & Spoony discuss Highlander: Endgame for far too long...
More fan art!
In honor of the announcement of the Kickassia DVD, I created this badass trailer that is more awesome than the actual Expendables.
Now you can watch it on Youtube, you cheap bastards
Rule 63 fan art of Spoony and Dr. Insano.
Hi. This is a new segment where we clash two different characters from the annals of geek history. For our first match, we're pitting Ator the Invincible against Yor, Hunter from the Future.
ATOR: Ator was first concieved as a ripoff of Conan The Barbarian which had just previously made a career for Ah-Nold. The character was used in four movies: Ator The Invincible, Ator The Invincible 2(aka: The Blade Master, or Cave Dwellers from MST3K fame), Iron Warrior, and finally Quest For The Mighty Sword(aka: Troll 3). Ator was like a cross between Conan and McGuyver. He was a skilled swordsman during the dark ages who also knew science and magic. He apparently had a son of the same name who was chunkier than Chris Farley.
YOR: This slab of meat is a caveman in a post-apocalyptic future who is the best at what he does, and what he does is laying entire civilizations to waste. He slays dinosaurs, robots, mutants, and evil overlords. He has some more knowledge that your average Encino Man wouldn't have, which comes in handy when he has to use either a laser gun or pilot a starship.
...
A while back I found this template and during a fit of boredom I put this together.
I also did one for TSE which I posted on Spoony's forum.
Hello, I'm Mahan and I am a TGWTGaholic. I watch Nostalgia Critic videos every day, and my collection of videos is increasing by the day. But, as anyone on this site can tell you, being a TGWTGaholic isn't a bad thing. Far from it. Before I started watching Nostalgia Critic, I used to like every movie I saw, and I mean every movie. I had seen Space Jam, Kazaam, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Drop Dead Fred, and used to think they were all tops. But ever since my mate Boltan gave me a few of the videos, I can see movies with a new light. I still watch the movies listed above, but I watch them and just laugh at how absolutely shithouse they are. Not only that, he has shown me movies to never go near. Biodome: Burn in Hell. Rock-a-Doodle: Eat donkey dick. And as for Warriors of Virtue, I would rather drink battery acid than be subjected to that level of boredom.
But I don't just watch Nostalgia Critic. I have seen Bum Reviews, Ask That Guy, Nostalgia Chick, Spoony and the list goes on. All in all, this is one addiction that I wear on my sleeve with pride. TGWTGaholics forever!
