[166] an empty shell

console

< Piro >

"without tricks or deceptions"

Tuesday - September 4, 2001

Quick shameless MT swag update. Hats and caps are now availible in the to the Megatokyo Store in a variety of designs. The caps are pretty nice - i've been wearing around a 'sample' megatokyo hat for a few months now, i figure that folks might like them (they are a nice microfiber cap). I've made hats for the 3V1L L33t design, the b4k4^2 design, the I.A.C. design, the Clocked design and the Baka^ni design. In addition, i've made a Megatokyo Logo design, that comes in both a microfiber hat and a swank bucket cap. Good stuff for hiding your head.

Long weekends are always nice. They give you that extra day which you can use to goof off, or actually get something done. I admit. Saturday was kind of a goof off day, I admit. Seraphim and I finished out the day by watching 'Chocolate' - a pretty engaging film, actually. Sadly, I never did get to the 'Chasing Amy' DVD that largo has been hounding me to watch. He says I'll relate to it. If that's the case, i don't want to watch it.

Speaking of DVDs, I got a little feedback on my comments about the forthcoming Kaito Saint Tail DVD from Tokyo Pop, much of it leading me over to the forums over at AnimeOnDVD.com. I haven't seen the DVD myself yet, but the word is that there ARE some notable gaffs on the first DVD - but much of those seem to have been attributed to the 'predecessor' of the guy who's in charge of finishing out the series - who is taking an active part in the discussion. I feel relieved. It's a fabulous series that deserves some attention, and I'm glad to see that if nothing else, the Tokyo Pop folks are listening to feedback. They indicate that future disks will not have the problems that the current disks have. I'm looking forward to reviewing the disk. I watched my own fansubs of it over the weekend, and I remember some of the difficulties in translating, so i'm very curious to see how they did it. :)

Like the sketch of Yuki? I dunno, i really like the Yuki character. When you consider the fact that she came out of nowhere, and forced her way into the story, she one of the more developed characters in MT so far. I thought it would be fun to draw her in something a little different. I also drew her with a yakpak bag. Look familiar? Big thanks to the nice folks at yakpak for the link. :) (psst, take a close look at Piro's bookbag in the strip...)

I dunno, there was a whole bunch of things i was supposed to touch on today... oh yea, Merekat has revamped her website, and i think y'all should go take a look. She actually DOES do tutorials (unlike someone else i know). Very much worth checking out.

She made some more desktop wallpapers, this time of the Megatokyo Memorial image - i just can't find them right now. I'll post them here sometime later tonight.

Other than that, i'm not really very far ahead on the comic. I spent too much time over the weekend designing hats for the Megatokyo Store. They should be available sometime tomorrow. They are actually kinda nice hats. There are going to be some major changes in the Megatokyo store in the next few months, i'm going to retire some designs, offer some colored shirts, etc. We'll let you know what's up.

Oh, and whats the 'without tricks or deception' bit above? That's how we translated Saint Tail's transformation phrase - supposedly a pretty standard line spoken by magicians before their act - it's an example of how some Japanese phrases can be translated a number of ways. What's always amused me was how rampant the tricks and deceptions in the series are...

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< Largo >

"Arcanum"

Monday - August 27, 2001

[Largo] - 20:35:00 - [link here]

For those interested, Scott Kurtz and I will be attending AnimeFest this weweekend inDallas, TX. We'll both be attending panels, signing junk, etc.

On the webcomic front, BlinkTags and Project Fanboy. Also, be sure to checkout Polymer City Chronicles, it has a new site, and a new look to it.

Like most right thinking people in their mid-twenties, I went and saw Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back over the weekend. Man, did this movie cheer me up. Besides the normal Kevin Smith goodness you'd expect to find in an Askew flick, I was treated to an entire subplot revolving around something that I can relate to - internet trolls. Not a day goes by that our website isn't made a target by someone who either doesn't approve of what we do, or thinks they can do a better job. I don't want to spoil the ending of the film, but I will say that I came out of J&SBSB feeling relaxed, calm, and as if a great evil in the universe had been finally vanquished.

Posters & Color T-Shirts are coming soon, but we've been swamped with paperwork lately. Scott Kurtz once wrote that success could kill your website, giving it a lot of thought these past few months, I think his statement was close to the real truth, which is - "Success can kill you."

Somehow this missed my attention when it first happened, but the new Neverwinter Nights Designer Diary was posted to da vault. This time we look into the mind of Marc Holmes, which is a pretty scary place.

I've been gone a lot lately, lost in an amazing new realm, where trolls and calculators co-exist together in an unholy union of magic and technology. No, I haven't been to my accountant's office, I've been playing the recently released, Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.

For the uninitiated, Arcanum is a CRPG (I do so love CRPGs) that combines traditional sword & sorcery elements of fantasy role playing - with would could be described as a Jules Verne's inspired world of electrical and steam based technology. It takes talented people to merge two opposing concepts to create one unique and fluid product such as Arcanum.

The character creation and advancement process is extremely diverse, this is as much to its benefit, as its weakness. First time players will more then likely be confused as to what they should make their character, what skills to raise, what stats to raise, etc. I suggest playing a bit and then re-starting once you've gotten used to the game, and have a better idea what path (magick/technology/both) and skills (pick pocketing, melee combat, gambling) you want.

To create my character, I choose my favorite race in any game, a human. I gave him extra intelligence and charisma and the trait of having a 'strong personality', so people have extreme reactions (either positive or negative) when first meeting him. I then dumped a point in the Persuasian skill, and selected the Electricity technology track. Finally I thought about whom this character this reminded me of the most, and named him "Largo", to begin the game.

After I began play, I quickly learned that this game revolves around looting dead bodies, you begin play surrounded by them. I was little upset at first, I didn't know looting corpses was a skill, otherwise I'd have put more points in it. I tried to persuade the dead with my amazing charm and charisma, but it was like talking to a wall. After I finished stripping all the corpses of their most valuable items, I continued on my epic journey.

The first critical path of the story involves going to the next town to find a priest, after I arrived there - I realized that this game has more to offer then looting corpses, I was surrounded by living people now, all of them who would become prey to my amazing charm and persuation! An hour later I died while trying to talk some sewer rats out of eating me, so I gave up and restarted the game, this time with a more a fighter like character, dumping points into strength and selecting the trait of "beat with an ugly stick" - I found I was able to hurt things now, and spent less time talking to the NPCs, and more time turning rats into pulp.

In all seriousness I've really been enjoying the game since I've gotten it, the story picks up around the second critical path of the story, so I'd suggest sticking it out till you reach the next town. Also, when you get there, be sure to look for Madam Lil's place, tell her Largo sent you.

This game's theme is really refreshing, after Bioware re-energized the CRPG genre with Baldur's Gate some years ago, the market has been full of uninspired games offering the same old thing in terms of the fantasy genre in order to cash in on 'the new big thing'. It's been reminiscent of when id software first released Doom and suddenly everyone had their own "doom-like game".

Sierra, the makers of Arcanum, have had a tough time of things lately, the problems with the Homeworld Franchise (which is still hands down the best fleet space-combat RTS ever made), to the recent closing of the Dynamix studio in Eugene, Oregon. I can only assume Sierra is doing what It needs to do to keep making great games, so I hope.