Philosophical Impact of Comic Character Religions

Religion of Comic Book Characters

If anyone would like to engage in a discussion of the religions of various comic characters with a slant towards the philosophical implications of the religious views these characters maintain feel free to comment.

For example: Does religion provide a core defining component of a character or do religions exist as tacked-on additions to suppliment an already defined character? Is Nightcrawler's Catholicism as integral to the character as, say, Shadowcats Judaism?

Dragon Age Origins

I spent this Thanksgiving break finishing Dragon Age Origins, and let it be known, I was not disappointed. Bioware has been the first company this generation to succeed in creating a modern RPG with a narrative that I couldn't leave alone. Other games have tried, but this is the only to succeed.

The leveling system for dragon age feels half-assed and boring.

The combat system in this game is fun enough, with an interesting concept of sustained abilities that have upkeep costs, that when running just hack a certain amount of energy right off the top, allowing one to have "sustained" bonuses, if you will. Outside of that it brings nothing new to the table. But it doesn't need to. The combat system is tight enough that one doesn't have to suffer through it to get to the story, it takes care of itself, while still allowing you to interact and not get bored.

The game's narrative shines so brightly, though, that none of the rest really matters. The attention to detail that Bioware has shown in creating their fictional world is refreshing and glorious. It is as immersive as any book I have read. The histories they have fabricated are slowly fed to you, in such a way that you get enough to hold you, while always wanting more. And to J's constant complaint, wondering why one would play an RPG rather than watch a similarly plotted movie, Bioware has shown that we are finally making progress on the RP part of RPGs. The thing that stuck out to me the most in this game was the choices one is forced to make. Dragon Age is constantly forcing you, the player, to make decisions that affect the entire story, most often existing with no right answer. Choosing the lesser of two evils becomes commonplace when trying to save the world, it seems.

I enjoyed this game thoroughly, and am currently fighting the urge to play it again and make some different choices this time around.

Where We start [chat]ing like the Chinese

"We need to start thinking like the Chinese. I’m developing a 100 year plan for America."

errrr....really?

Al Gore is going to Tape Toy Guns to Trees

Science didn't work, so he is bringing the crazy.

[chat] and Tonic

It loves you just the way you are.

Free Speech and Death Threats

So I really like this.
'Godless' Billboard Moved After Threats Against Owner
I wonder if God told the person to send death threats?
Love thy neighbor, as long as they believe what I do.

Nostalgia

I was going to wait until I finished Nostalgia to review it, but fuck it. I would rather eat this game than finish it.

Actually, Nostalgia is a rare treat for me. It is exceptionally difficult to have a pure experience with a video game these days: one where the game reveals itself at its own pace, untainted by months of advertising, magazine previews, and trailers. I had never even heard of Nostalgia when I picked it up and all I knew was what I saw in the first few pages of the strategy guide. A guy with a sword and a girl mage were flying around in an airship in a game called Nostalgia. That's all I needed to know to be convinced that this would be worth the money.

Hell, I didn't even flip the box over to see if it was 2D or 3D. This was going to be pretty great.

If any of you start talking about purifying crystals I'm crashing this thing into the nearest mountain

The Good Parts of Nostalgia

1) The World of Nostalgia is Earth

I am entirely in favor of this. Some details in the geography and especially the topography are a bit creative, but otherwise the layout is pretty familiar. When the townsfolk start dropping hints about how maybe you should check out New York, it's pretty easy to know exactly where to go next. None of this wondering around like a tard looking for some made up town.

2) All Overworld Travel is in an Airship

After like twenty years of coming up with dumb reasons for preventing you from having an airship, Nostalgia just gives you one right away and makes it the only way to travel between towns and dungeons. You don't even have to pay for it or do a quest for a leering pedophile airship captain. You just get one. It's genius.

3) Mage Weapons Actually Do Physical Damage

The black mage uses blunt weapons like clubs and hammers and the white mage's staves tend to have sharp edges. This keeps the white mage from being relegated to a rechargable herb dispenser, and allows for some longer dungeon runs since the black mage doesn't have to choose between using MP and wasting a turn.

The Bad Parts of Nostalgia

This is the most generic RPG anyone has ever bothered to let someone else think up for them. The young hero, sword in hand, goes to the sewers to gut some rats because the adventure guild told him to. There he meets the loner thief with a sketchy past and they sail the skies in search of more sewers with bigger rats or something. And then they encounter the strong-willed black mage girl who has a strong will and develops an abusive relationship with the loner pretty much right away. Then they meet the white mage with amnesia and I had to put the DS down for a little while. Since the title of the game is Nostalgia and the characters are so flagrantly reminiscent of any number of other RPGs, I thought certainly the developers would be having some fun with the cliches and we could all enjoy ourselves.

Instead, they completely embraced the cliches and regurgitated them with absolute seriousness. It's like they don't even know that Final Fantasy, Wild Arms, Skies of Arcadia, et others were widely available and played by other people. If they had gone the tongue-in-cheek homage route, they could have rewarded everyone for having played these games, but they would much rather punish us with their hopelessly boring shit.

The white mage is a mysterious girl with amnesia for god's sake. And she is able to interact with the ancient artifacts no one else can touch. Seven artifacts. Oh my god what if she is a princess from the fucking mythical land of happiness fairies and bears an amulet that activates the lost technologies!! Oh my god what if?!

Ooh and she and the main character could fall in wuv and have cutscenes together.

Shit, but she could actually serve a dark purpose!!! Maybe she is the harbinger of our doom and will one day have to fulfill her destiny but then at the last second choose not to even though she has been brainwashed by the mysterious cult!

That would blow my mind completely raw.

Unfortunately, I'll never know how Nostalgia ends, because it had fifteen hours to reach a conclusion and it flatly refused to. Patience over, get out.