brkl

Some missions that we could maybe try: Airport Sabotage Warfare Mission Pack Hostages Co-06 Attack Kozlovka Clear the Way Operation Shruka Attack RADAR

Postponing Arma is not great because Lucien is still paying for the server. But Saturday would work for me.

There's a bit over an hour left! If you're skint, With Fire & Sword is probably enough to join us. Apparently it's standalone. Only 2.5€ at the moment! http://store.steampowered.com/app/48720/?snr=1_7_suggest__13

I'd love to try it this week though. Thursday?

What's a good day? My schedule is pretty empty, and especially now that my girlfriend is moving to another town (I'll join her when I finish my thesis... in about six months) I'm free to nerd out any day. How about Wednesday evening? Perhaps earlier than the Arma sessions so people who have work the next day can join as well.

And prancing about with firearms!

Oo, that sounds like it's made for me.

What surprised me is that it's apparently modeled after American films made during WW2. Proving something like that is a tall order, especially when the movie is at face value the least subtle war movie imaginable. It's not another "Fascism is bad, mmkay?" movie (do we need another one), it mostly just shows how such a society operates in a fantastic, fictional setting. It shows how the population is controlled with propaganda, how an enemy is chosen and dehumanized (easy when they look like insects, but the situation is comparable to how actual fascist states operate), the young are indoctrinated with nationalistic and militant ideas etc. and crucially how innocuous all of that can seem from within that society if you're in the segment of the population that can live in relative comfort.

I think I read the first page of the original book once, but that was probably after I'd seen the movie. I never claimed the movie had a direct message about fascism -- it has an indirect one. If you refuse to read into yet, you're not going to get anything out of it either.

Well, apparently I've bought it for less than 4€ at Gamer's Gate, so I'll install the commercial vanilla version of Arma 2. I don't have any of the addons though and everything Arma is expensive at the moment. Still leaves us with Scratch so I don't think it makes any difference.

A lot of things get pared down when you adapt a novel into a movie. It was mentioned in several scenes, which is plenty in an action movie.

That's awesome, subbes!

Maybe, but it's a staple in dystopic fiction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#The_War .

Mmm, I don't know. Honestly, I didn't don't YA were such a big thing now. Something else that occurred to me: if you're going to start labeling some books genre, 1984 would have to be classified as sci-fi (and therefore cannot have literary worth or enrich the human spirit or whatever).

Starship Troopers is really clever in how it hides its nature. Even having those awful soap actors are there for a reason. If you want to just watch is a brainless action movie and refuse to read into what's going on, the film doesn't force any message on you. Basically all 1984-inspired sci-fi films and other anti-fascistic films make their message really obvious. Everybody is always completely miserable. This one shows how well-to-do middle class people in a fascistic society can fool themselves into believing everything is fine. So what if they give up the right to vote unless they enlist? Their kids go to school, there's plenty of good entertainment, and anyway, it's war and you don't go changing horses in the middle of the stream... Starship Troopers 2 and 3 are completely atrocious, but I don't understand how you can blame Verhoeven for projects he wasn't involved with. EDIT: Oo, I just remembered how in that propaganda piece in the film where NPH shoots the bug with an assault rifle, quickly dispatching the bug in a shower of gore. However, in the actual fights the bugs aren't overly bothered when shot with the same guns... And how it was criticized for not having a proper ending when that was the whole point. Maybe I'll watch it again. But that's totally in there!

Well, is it? I don't believe in the literature-genre-young adult etc. split. We know Dickens didn't write his books to be high brow. Are they just too good or too old to be labeled as young adult books? I think the labels are simply a value judgment.

My new Shephard is called Lillypond Shephard, cause she's a bloody goody two-shoes Paragon.

It kinda sounds like the movie managed to be more layered than the book.

Well, Charles Dickens was perhaps the most popular and mainstream author of his time...

Did you scoff at ME3's ending? Also, (ME2 spoiler)

I got that a few years ago! Some day I'll open it.

Yes.

I had something like that with Dragon Age 2. Took me ages to figure out it wasn't supposed to be there!

Fall of the Samurai still suffers from the campaign desync bug in co-op that Total War 2 has suffered from the start. This can lure you to playing co-op for ten hours to find out your save is broken and you can't continue. Apparently the way they handle multiplayer campaigns is coded really, really badly. There's some kind of workaround by using Dropbox, but it really shouldn't be necessary.