Scraps vs. The Internets

Doctor Scraps here--

A new party member named Kasumi has been announced for DLC in Mass Effect 2 on April 6th. Is anybody else envisioning a buxom, blue and white gi-wearing kung fu girl jump kicking Collectors and Krogans? It would indeed be teh hawtness, but also highly inpractical.
Ah, see this is why ole' Scrappy needs to do this homework before he starts typing-- Kasumi is a Thief character, one of those Sly Cooper types. And she looks like a Sith Lord. As long as she is more interactable than Zaeed wound up being, I'll be happy. I've been looking for an excuse to play ME2 for a while.

You know-- I have quite a few pet peeves when it comes to the internet. One of them is people who post on forums for specific games...for this example, we're going to say Mass Effect since I just got done talking about it. You browse a Mass Effect forum andf some jackhole makes a post entitled "How would you compare this to Final Fantasy 13?"
I wouldn't. Different genre, different play style, dingus.
Another variant is "This game or this game?"
Make your own decision, moron. If you're browsing the Mass Effect forum on Gamefaqs, don't ask whether Mass Effect 2 is better than Bioshock 2, you know what answer you're going to get!
Of course, we have this wonderful thing on the internet called Moderated Free Speach, which prevents me from scalding these fools verbally, because I'm then officially "infringing upon their right to have an opinion", even if they are idiots.

Jade on Useless Characters:

There are so many different ways that a player can make themselves useful in a game: they can be the team's medic, techie, tank, resident magic (or force) user, or even comic relief to name a few. There are skills and talents availble to every class and race that a good player can use to their advantage. Whatever the ends may be. The trick is merely to know what you want to do with your character and then follow the necessary paths to get you there. Note, however, that I said a "good player."There are just as many ways, as I have come to notice, to make yourself utterly useless in a game. Creating a twi'lik noble with nothing but buff abilities in a cambat-heavy, Run-and-Gun campaign for example. Your teammates would prefer you helping in the front lines, not hiding behind us all granting random bonuses that don't really help that much anyway. On the flip-side, creating an overpowered God character in a Military campaign that explodes everyone's head before we get a chance to question them is equally as useless. You are not Bruce Willis. Yes...terrorists just happened to hi-jack the spa resort that our so called "benefactor" sent us to, but we have no-idea if it was coincidence or not because their grey matter is all over the docking bay floor. Thanks for being a sport. Oh, and would someone please tell me what use a wannabe assassin is to a party of nobles, protected by a few Jedi, on a DIPLOMATIC mission. Just who do you think you are going to assassinate? I have a lightsaber...I will CUT you...

There are two other types of useless characters that really irritate me: the ones that take anything and everything that sounds "good" but ultimately gets them nowhere, and droids. In all fairness, I haven't played much with droid characters but the ones in our group right now seriously annoy me. The R-5 isn't so bad. It is goofy campaign anyway where we all play the most unlikely characters and our R-5 has a built in Easy-Bake oven. Good comic relief. However...she has no weapons! The other droid...I don't even know what he is trying to be or do. He spent the entire first session following the R-5 around trying to rape it. I can't believe I'm going to say this but I actually missed the pimp Jawa (complete with hoes and bling)! As for taking random talents with no apparent goal in mind...pick up the damn book and read it every once in a while. Have a character concept ready (more than just an anime-esque drawing of the cutest Zabrak the galaxy has ever seen thank you very much) and choose a race whose species traits and personality goes along with it. Pick a class that gives you access to the talents and prestige class you really want. Don't half-ass it for the first 5 levels and then bitch because you don't have ANY of the prerequisites for something you all of a sudden REALLY want to take.

Like I said, as a player you can make yourself an asset or a liability in a variety of ways. These are only a few examples that we have personally seen in our own endevors. I'm sure there are still a few that I have forgotten to mention and there will, of course, be more. Oh yes...there will be more. If you have any useless character stories you want to vent about, post them as a comment on our blog or message Fractured Transmissions on our myspace!

From: Jade--

Nerd Rage comes in all colors.

From: Doctor Scraps--
(As the other two will begin to submit stuff to the blog, we'll be using indicators to show who's posting what, in case Jo's goes on a tirade and I get blamed.)

Sweet Daisy, I have been a lazy little blogger. You would think a happening, creative individual like me would have all sorts of interesting bits to talk about. And yet my muse likes to hide my material when I sit down to write. I should take a cue from Keven Smith and twitter bomb before I sit down to the write to get my writing powers warmed up.

So, have I been talking about running D&D? Well, I have- A three man group in a slow spiral of madness while I try to relearned 3.5 while at the same time running a Star Wars Saga Edition campaign with my usual group. It begins to strain the creative nerves- because sometimes my plots tend to overlap. Eventually I'll just snap and have three adventurers encountering a Rancor and have it try and shove one of them up it's ass.

If you follow my Twitter, I mentioned that I got myself banned from the Bethesda forums over picking fights with the people who are clamboring that Fallout: New Vegas return to Fallout 2's style, a game that came out in late 90's, early 2-thousands. As soon as New Vegas was released, this happened, suddenly Fallout 3 was a diseased whore in the gutter, and a demand for a return to Fallout 2's style emerged. Next thing you'll know they'll be saying Fallout 3 isn't canon like Fallout Tactics was declared. Sigh~~ Nerds.
So for pointing out their stupidity and narrow-mindedness, I was shown the door. Yes, yes, people are entitled to their opinions, and what have you~ But you have to understand, Fallout Nerd Rage is a special flavor of crazy. It made my blood pressure rise a few octaves just reading their diatribes. I'm beginning to think those idiots over at No Mutants Allowed are trying to stir shit up again.
Oh well~ Once again, my words of wisdom are dust to the wind...

Raging Nerds, Red Stuff, and Bioshock.

Scraps here--

I think for a while at least, I need to just...stay away from the Bethesda forums. Fallout: New Vegas is coming out this year and already you have the people on the forums speculating and wish-listing, also making outright demands, and Nerd Raging all over the place...
It does not do my blood pressure well.

Aaand, there is a crockpot of red stuff in my fridge...I can see onions in it, and something that looks like basil or oregano. It's leafy...Outside of that, I have no clue what my brother was cooking so late into the night. I'm labeling it the Chili of Destiny. Unless it gives me the runs, then it becomes the Chili of Doom.
Or it might not be a chili at all. There might be chicken in there, floating, absorbing...becoming.
This, however, does not lead me to many conclusion on what I can pillage for breakfast. The red stuff is scary.

Ooh, Bro rented Bioshock 2 for me while I was recording last night. I know what I'M doing toniiight.