Good graphics/audio.
Excellent use of the LotR source material.
Interesting approach to giving us the same old classes and combat.
The Deeds (essentially CoH badges) and Attribute (essentially stat bonuses) elements were cool.
The PVP actually vaguely interested me.

The deal breaker? Forced Teaming. How many times do I have to say it? The moment you force me to team to get anywhere, I'm gone.
Sheesh.--
Christopher Angel, aka JPublic
The Works of Christopher Angel
"Camaraderie, adventure, and steel on steel. The stuff of legend! Right, Boo?"

Hello, been a while since I was here.
School work piled on, then a complete burn out.
Anyway, before I get into the whole finding a job thing, I thought I'd pop in and say a few cranky, no-fun words.
Basically, these are a few points, perhaps even criticisms about this whole endeavor.
I hope that it will inspire healthy debate about the teleology of Fenspace.
Firstly: Why the Boskone War should have been total genocide for the entire human race.
Not knowing how or why the whole Boskone thing started, nor how it ended, it's a bit difficult to attribute motives and what-not to the sides. At any rate, ever since Napoleon or thereabouts, Total War has been the name of the game. Granted, we haven't had a full-scale nuclear exchange on Earth yet, but that doesn't mean that it wouldn't happen.
Given this trend in human history, with no real sign of abatement, the Boskone War should have meant extinction for the whole human race. Here's why: weapons proliferation. Even with the censor that handwavium imposes, the most effecient and cheaply made weapon available to the combatants are their own ships. With enough firepower in just one orbital shuttle to take out a city (at least), and with the massive proliferation of ships/weapons, there should have been mass al-qaedaing of damn near every habitat, space station, asteroid, colony, city and biosphere.
The only reason why this hasn't happend is editorial fiat. Which really isn't that good of a reason.
Think about it. If we can start a venomous flame war about, I dunno, which battlestar galactica was better, then how would fans (or fens . . . which works as well as any other name, i suppose) react to each other when they have thermonuclear capabilities and a frightening lack of restraint?
Secondly: Suzumiya Haruhi is dumb, dumb, dumb.
Well, no, not really. It's a great anime/light novel series. She's a great character. However, what really takes you out of this shared universe thing is the idea of a single god-like character out there laughing it up while handing out handwavium goodies.
(not to get into the fact that the whole premise of the series was that she didn't know about her powers being the point).
It further takes away any real mystique that the handwavium could accrue if their origins were mysterious. Where did it come from? How does it work? Who else is out there in the universe? Etc. etc. If the answer to all this is: it's a god-like japanese school girl what did it, then, well, heck. There's not much more to say about the subject, is there.
It also goes against the, for lack of a better term, feel of the shared universe. What is the point of being semi-hard science fiction if it's the product of a god-like being? Doesn't that undermine everything?
Thirdly: Nostalgia.
I read an article (can't find it now, darn it), really an interview with charles stross and cory doctorow, in which it talks about how science fiction has grown afraid of the future. How it's either all elves and unicorns or space opera galactic empires in the year five billion. No near-term future think. A discussion of the singularity was also there, but the point stands that there is a genuine lack of novelty in science fiction.
A lot of it has to do with nostalgia; dangerous, corrosive nostalgia.
Look at how this world was set up, regurgitating the ideas and dreams of dead men like ideological necrophiliac cannibals. Where's the new, the outbreaks of future, in having your fictional avatar live in a world that people born in the ass-end of the last century would have found comfortable and explicable?
Anyway.
Ignore or respond or what have you.
-murmur

The United States Supreme Court has made it's decision in Morse V. Frederick, the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case: they've decided in favor of Morse.
This is disappointing, but about what I expected. At least the findings were fairly narrow: they rejected the government's argument that schools can suppress all student speech not in agreement with the school's self-defined "educational mission," limiting this only to speech that can be interpreted as supporting drug use. I did find Justice Thomas' opinion a bit worrying, though
--The Twisted One"Welcome to Fanboy Hell. You will be spending eternity here, in a small room with Jar-Jar Binks and Dobby the house-elf."
"If you
wish to converse with me, define your
terms."

--Voltaire

I loved the Step but noticed some possible errors. Sorry if I'm vague with citations, but I noticed the errors over a year ago, tried to join the board (user name Essex), failed several times to access the boards, failed in my attempts to correct the problem, and didn't try to rejoin until after I recently moved.
1). Lisa asked Nene to investigate Doug. Nene had a hardsuit screencapture picture of Doug from a boomer attack. Why didn't Nene notice the link? While it is easily believable that she just didn't connect the two events it may have been better if Nene was left with a nagging thought that she'd seen the guy somewhere before so that she could have a 'forehead slap' moment later.
2). Sylia plans to make older bodies for the rescued child boomer but Doug's earlier research on boomers would imply that boomers die after about 15 years. Since Sylia didn't yet know that Doug's nanovirus would extend boomer lives, why would she be making long term plans for a boomer that was already several years old?
3). Doug gave the horoscope boomers samples of his boomer virus. Why? Given what had already been established they should be able to spread it just by touching things.
----------------------------------------------------

"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV

I have a few questions about how ships are docked.
1) If a Space Dock can reasonably dock a Space Ship class vessel internally, does it use open slips with docking clamps and a boarding tube all the time? Or can the big ones actually have sealed slips for some (and if so, what is the opinion of the collective as to the average size)?
2) Rob, can Stelliva dock a Space Ship? And if so, how big a one given that the SS rating allows for ships that are bigger than the shuttle tanks you use for the main ring? (See link here)
3) What sort of capacity would your typical Space Port or Space Dock have?

All these interesting-looking links over the weekend, and I'm having problems with my current ISP.
Fingers crossed, I may have a new ISP next week. But until then, my contributions may be a bit spotty...

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Anyone play these old boardgames? I've been getting back into them lately, SL, ASL, and more... looking for fellow enthusiasts.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

I've been on a Tenchi Muyo kick recently, but aside from the excellent works of Jeff L. Harris and Jeff Morris
www.tmffa.com/member.html?id=164
www.tmffa.com/member.html?id=524
I've been having rather poor luck at finding anything engrossing to read, and given the success of my previous Sailor Moon fic search, and given the the huge variety of experience and depth of knowledge of the subject of fanfiction here, I was hoping for some more suggestions? What in your opinion are the best Tenchi stories out there?

This is an amazing bit of stereophonic engineering, as a demo for some technical system or other.
Wear headphones for it, if you can. It's not loud, but REALLY effective via the phones.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll