1. We call our fizzy drinks "pop".
2. We call our casseroles hotdish.
3. We do NOT say "dontcha know" at the end of every sentence. I swear, this is Minnesota's "aboot".
The "awesome" category is mainly going by my Steam games list. And yes, there are 11 "awesome" titles. Problem?
Awesome:
11. Portal/Portal 2
10. Sam & Max (Save the World, Beyond Time and Space, and the Devil's Playhouse)
9. Dragon Age: Origins
8. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
7. Team Fortress 2 (Would be higher, but for Hat Fortress 2)
6. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (series)
5. Sid Meier's Civilization IV
4. Half-Life 2 (Plus Episodes One and Two)
3. Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy & Second Sight (as below, I hate to put them in different slots since I loved 'em for virtually the same reason)
2. Borderlands
1. Assassin's Creed (series)
Moderately Disliked: (Because most of these games I can't truly say I hated, just didn't like that much)
10. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (series)
9. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Mainly for its ridiculous system of trying to hit things)
8. Dark Cloud 2
7. Lost Odyssey (With quite possibly the WORST leveling system I've ever seen)
6. Magic: the Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers (Original, not the 2012 version)
5. Heroes of Might and Magic (series)
4. Terraria
3. Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes
2. Diablo (series)
1. League of Legends/Heroes of Newerth (Feels wrong to put them as two separate series, since I hate them for the same reason)
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. After sitting in my "to-play" list for the entirety of the Steam Summer Sale, I sat down and, over the course of two days, beat the last bit of it I had to finish. Loved the ending, hated that it was a cliffhanger, but I'm happy that I've only got a few months to wait for Revelations to see how it all ends.
I'm with the OP on this one. Honestly, my biggest issue is the teeny, tiny blocks compared to Minecraft. I have very little fine control with my mouse, and while I like that blocks retain damage (unlike in Minecraft) it's still kind of a pain trying to clear a path anywhere.
Depends on my schedule the next morning. I try to time it so I get 8 hours every night (though I rarely do) so...I guess the earliest I go to bed is around 2 AM, when I have to work at 11 AM that morning. Otherwise, it's a matter of whenever I get tired, which has been 6 AM in the past.
OMG! I LOVE Audiosurf! Me and my friends used to have Audiosurf parties where we'd all bring USBs full of MP3s and make everyone play each other's songs. XD
It was all fun and games 'till someone made me play Manowar. :sad.gif:
I usually play as Mono. The other racers confuse me.
I used to do a similar thing, back in the day. My friend and I would trade libraries and copy them over to each other's computers, and we'd go back and forth picking songs to face off on. We both played Ninja Mono, and I agree that the others just get too confusing. That said, it always feels a little unfair when I see the leaderboards for a song, and usually see one really good "color" player on top with a score that Mono can't possibly beat. I'd love it if the scoreboards were separated into people who play Mono, and everyone else.
I play it on occasion. Racked up around 15 hours when it first came out. I love the game, and it's surprisingly addicting, but I've kind of moved onto Beat Hazard now.
Our group used to do D&D, back in 3.5 days. (We still meet on a weekly basis for gaming) We started in D&D 3.5, then had a brief stint in 4e when it came out. When I was the only one of about 6 people who enjoyed 4e over 3.5, we switched over to Pathfinder. We spent a little time playing Modern d20 and the Star Wars RPG, then tried out the Dresden Files RPG, Scion, Exalted, and Deadlands, but now the group plays GURPS for the most part.
I love seeing this thread pop up (it's about the third time I've seen it) but can we PLEASE get some spoiler tags and paragraphs? I wanted to read that Pokemon one, but it's a solid wall of text.
And just so I didn't just post to whine about the other entries in the thread, one of my favorites from one of the old threads:
The Portraits
There was a hunter in the woods, who, after a long day hunting, was in the middle of an immense forest. It was getting dark, and having lost his bearings, he decided to head in one direction until he was clear of the increasingly oppressive foliage. After what seemed like hours, he came across a cabin in a small clearing. Realizing how dark it had grown, he decided to see if he could stay there for the night. He approached, and found the door ajar. Nobody was inside. The hunter flopped down on the single bed, deciding to explain himself to the owner in the morning.
As he looked around the inside of the cabin, he was surprised to see the walls adorned by several portraits, all painted in incredible detail. Without exception, they appeared to be staring down at him, their features twisted into looks of hatred and malice. Staring back, he grew increasingly uncomfortable. Making a concerted effort to ignore the many hateful faces, he turned to face the wall, and exhausted, he fell into a restless sleep.
The next morning, the hunter awoke — he turned, blinking in unexpected sunlight. Looking up, he discovered that the cabin had no portraits, only windows.
--
By the way, it's a great feeling to, at 4 in the morning, search for that story and land on the Oh Internet creepypasta page, which has a huge jpeg image of the Smile Dog.
Now, I didn't read all of it, but as a fellow novel-writing person I'll give you the best feedback I can give you:
The postive things:
* Your writing style is good, the sentences flow and there's really little to no stopping up because of either misplaced or entirely missing punctuation, good job!
Thanks for that. I've taken 13 years of English (From 1st through 12th grade, and a few college-level classes) and it always bugs me when people misspell words, or use punctuation in a wonky way. I try my best to make things sound right, and do my best to not screw up with the punctuation.
* The dialogue flows, while some of it looks a bit too well-thought out for spoken words and is a bit stiff it does show character which, in my opinion, is the most important part of dialogue. The rest can be edited when you're done.
Do you have some specific examples? I admit I haven't put a whole lot of thought into the manner in which some of my characters speak, but I try to make it sound natural.
The negative things:
* Starting with dialogue is easy, though it isn't something that catches a reader's attention very well. Begin with a sentence that shocks, intrigues or perhaps even makes the reader smile. Dialogue is fine, but then it has to be a damn good piece of dialogue that will continue to make sense throughout the whole story.
I'm here talking about the first line and the first line only. Having a conversation on the first page is completely fine.
This is probably the most frustrating thing I've faced in my years writing. Trying to make an opening sentence that catches the reader's attention, but still allows the story to flow from it. Luckily, this whole thing is a work in progress, so I can edit to my heart's content to make it sound better.
* We don't need to know exactly how each character looks and what they wear at the very beginning! It stops the flow of the story greatly, let your readers form their own picture of the character to begin with and add information about how the character looks in pieces later, like saying something along the lines of: "His brown eyes met her blue as they stared" and so on. THat way, the character will slowly form in your readers mind instead of your reader being attacked by character description at the very beginning.
Probably my biggest weakness as a writer is description, as you can probably tell. The problem I've had is that I've seen it both ways - I've seen novels like Time Spiral (a Magic: the Gathering novel) where one character gets 2 paragraphs of description, and I feel my own is inadequate. On the other hand, virtually every story I've read by Isaac Asimov has almost no description, leaving it up to the reader. I try to find a medium between the two, but I find it tricky to have just enough - not too much information, but not so little that the reader doesn't know who or what s/he's looking at.
* THis one is sort of the same as the last one, but it deserves it's own spot anyway:
Don't bury us in information. In fact, keeping things a little confusing due to missing information intrigues a reader , making him or her want to read on to find out what the hell is going on and why. We don't need to understand everything at first - the key to suspense is not understanding. There's a reason many novelists keep shocking parts of the character's background for the very last few chapters!
Hope you can use this. =)
I definitely know what you mean. If you've read any of Isaac Asimov's works (most notably The Complete Robot) he seems to have nailed down perfectly the art of giving just enough information to make you want to read further, but leave out that one crucial bit that makes you go "Oh, wow!" at the end.
As easy as he seems to write it, though, I find it a challenge.
Quote from flyingfirpeig »
"unfortunately cuts right through any shadows that I could hide in. It’s this, or you taking Audric – and the queen – on your own.” - I don't like the unfortunatly - It just doesn't sound right...
Thanks for pointing it out. As I mentioned before, I wrote this thing at 4 AM, and then edited it at about 3 AM two nights later. I like to think I can function perfectly at that time, but I know I can't.
Quote from flyingfirpeig »
And, all the names at the start are confusing, mabye you could ease into it? Unless that isn't the start!
It's not quite the start. The prologue takes place about a third of the way into the novel itself. I have always loved novels that start in medias res (some of the Dresden Files novels come to mind) and I find it a good way to get the audience hooked. I know I said it earlier in the thread, but one of my biggest fears is whether or not the audience can keep up with all the characters that have a role in the story. As many people as there are, it's meant to have a very grand scale, dealing with the fate of the galaxy as a whole.
Quote from flyingfirpeig »
Edit: Are you selling this? You could release it for kindle when it's finished...
I appreciate the praise. :smile.gif: I've really spent more time trying to build the universe and general story than thinking on what I'm going to do with it when (if) I finish. Nice to know I have one fan who would pay for it, though!
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1. We call our fizzy drinks "pop".
2. We call our casseroles hotdish.
3. We do NOT say "dontcha know" at the end of every sentence. I swear, this is Minnesota's "aboot".
0
Awesome:
11. Portal/Portal 2
10. Sam & Max (Save the World, Beyond Time and Space, and the Devil's Playhouse)
9. Dragon Age: Origins
8. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
7. Team Fortress 2 (Would be higher, but for Hat Fortress 2)
6. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (series)
5. Sid Meier's Civilization IV
4. Half-Life 2 (Plus Episodes One and Two)
3. Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy & Second Sight (as below, I hate to put them in different slots since I loved 'em for virtually the same reason)
2. Borderlands
1. Assassin's Creed (series)
Moderately Disliked: (Because most of these games I can't truly say I hated, just didn't like that much)
10. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (series)
9. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Mainly for its ridiculous system of trying to hit things)
8. Dark Cloud 2
7. Lost Odyssey (With quite possibly the WORST leveling system I've ever seen)
6. Magic: the Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers (Original, not the 2012 version)
5. Heroes of Might and Magic (series)
4. Terraria
3. Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes
2. Diablo (series)
1. League of Legends/Heroes of Newerth (Feels wrong to put them as two separate series, since I hate them for the same reason)
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So was Johnny Bravo, for that matter.
I don't think I can state my feelings as well as M. Bison can. So, Bison, take it away.
Holy crap. I'm excited now.
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I used to do a similar thing, back in the day. My friend and I would trade libraries and copy them over to each other's computers, and we'd go back and forth picking songs to face off on. We both played Ninja Mono, and I agree that the others just get too confusing. That said, it always feels a little unfair when I see the leaderboards for a song, and usually see one really good "color" player on top with a score that Mono can't possibly beat. I'd love it if the scoreboards were separated into people who play Mono, and everyone else.
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I don't think I've ever seen a Revolutionary War shooter.
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Looking forward to Arkham City, Skyrim, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, though.
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And just so I didn't just post to whine about the other entries in the thread, one of my favorites from one of the old threads:
The Portraits
There was a hunter in the woods, who, after a long day hunting, was in the middle of an immense forest. It was getting dark, and having lost his bearings, he decided to head in one direction until he was clear of the increasingly oppressive foliage. After what seemed like hours, he came across a cabin in a small clearing. Realizing how dark it had grown, he decided to see if he could stay there for the night. He approached, and found the door ajar. Nobody was inside. The hunter flopped down on the single bed, deciding to explain himself to the owner in the morning.
As he looked around the inside of the cabin, he was surprised to see the walls adorned by several portraits, all painted in incredible detail. Without exception, they appeared to be staring down at him, their features twisted into looks of hatred and malice. Staring back, he grew increasingly uncomfortable. Making a concerted effort to ignore the many hateful faces, he turned to face the wall, and exhausted, he fell into a restless sleep.
The next morning, the hunter awoke — he turned, blinking in unexpected sunlight. Looking up, he discovered that the cabin had no portraits, only windows.
--
By the way, it's a great feeling to, at 4 in the morning, search for that story and land on the Oh Internet creepypasta page, which has a huge jpeg image of the Smile Dog.
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Wow. I have got to stop writing at 4 AM. Seriously.
*edit edit edit...*
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Thanks for that. I've taken 13 years of English (From 1st through 12th grade, and a few college-level classes) and it always bugs me when people misspell words, or use punctuation in a wonky way. I try my best to make things sound right, and do my best to not screw up with the punctuation.
Do you have some specific examples? I admit I haven't put a whole lot of thought into the manner in which some of my characters speak, but I try to make it sound natural.
This is probably the most frustrating thing I've faced in my years writing. Trying to make an opening sentence that catches the reader's attention, but still allows the story to flow from it. Luckily, this whole thing is a work in progress, so I can edit to my heart's content to make it sound better.
Probably my biggest weakness as a writer is description, as you can probably tell. The problem I've had is that I've seen it both ways - I've seen novels like Time Spiral (a Magic: the Gathering novel) where one character gets 2 paragraphs of description, and I feel my own is inadequate. On the other hand, virtually every story I've read by Isaac Asimov has almost no description, leaving it up to the reader. I try to find a medium between the two, but I find it tricky to have just enough - not too much information, but not so little that the reader doesn't know who or what s/he's looking at.
I definitely know what you mean. If you've read any of Isaac Asimov's works (most notably The Complete Robot) he seems to have nailed down perfectly the art of giving just enough information to make you want to read further, but leave out that one crucial bit that makes you go "Oh, wow!" at the end.
As easy as he seems to write it, though, I find it a challenge.
Thanks for pointing it out. As I mentioned before, I wrote this thing at 4 AM, and then edited it at about 3 AM two nights later. I like to think I can function perfectly at that time, but I know I can't.
It's not quite the start. The prologue takes place about a third of the way into the novel itself. I have always loved novels that start in medias res (some of the Dresden Files novels come to mind) and I find it a good way to get the audience hooked. I know I said it earlier in the thread, but one of my biggest fears is whether or not the audience can keep up with all the characters that have a role in the story. As many people as there are, it's meant to have a very grand scale, dealing with the fate of the galaxy as a whole.
I appreciate the praise. :smile.gif: I've really spent more time trying to build the universe and general story than thinking on what I'm going to do with it when (if) I finish. Nice to know I have one fan who would pay for it, though!
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"Will things ever be the same again? It's the final countdown!"
and 30 translations later, ended up with:
"What? This is the Final Countdown!"
Which is interesting, because I specifically did not capitalize final or countdown in my original text.