Introduction and captions: Ilmari
It's been a while, since we've had a chance to get to know our community members, so it's time to do that right now. You might have noticed that MrValdez was kind enough to donate a prize for our Star Trek playthrough - and you might soon find out a perfect reason for that. Yet, he has been of assistance to the blog even earlier and you probably see his handiwork every time you start to read a new post. What are the first words you'll see? "Written by..." Yes, it was MrValdez who suggested adding the author to the beginning of the post, when the blog was transferred from Trickster to community!
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| Now that's a cool hat! |
My home country is Philippines.
My age is in the early 30s.
The first adventure game I played was…
I can't remember which of these was my first adventure game: Last Half of Darkness, Hugo II, or Space Quest 4.
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| I remember playing this game, although it didn't make it into the blog. Maybe it will a future Missed Classic? |
My favourite adventure game is…
I got two answers:
Return to Zork. Because me and my siblings finished that game and I had no idea that people hated it. Once we get to Return to Zork, I would see if its still my favorite, or if I only like it because of nostalgia.
I got two answers:
Return to Zork. Because me and my siblings finished that game and I had no idea that people hated it. Once we get to Return to Zork, I would see if its still my favorite, or if I only like it because of nostalgia.
The trailer at least makes the game look... interesting
Monkey Island 2. 'nuff said.
When I’m not playing games I like to…
Do programming. I have been programming since I was young and its very natural to me.
Fun fact: the avatar that I am using is a sketch by my artist friend while I was programming in the Global Game Jam (an event where participants make a game in under 48 hours). I was wearing a tiger hat then.
I like my games in (a box, digital format)…
If you ask me before Steam, I'll chose box for that amazing feeling of opening a box for the first time and imagining what kind of game it is just by the manual and freebies.
Nowadays, I'll choose digital format for the convenience and cost.
The thing I miss about old games is…
The length of time between starting a game and finishing it.
Maybe I'm older and my gaming skills is better than when I was a kid. But back then, we played Return to Zork for 6 months before we finally finished it. It was both an exciting and frustrating experience.
Does anyone want to wager if it will take six months with us?
Nowadays, games are engineered so people can finish it in less than a week. ...or maybe I'm just an experienced gamer now.
The best thing about modern games is…
Two answers: Steam; and modern game design.
The one TV show I never miss is…
Star Trek.
I grew up watching The Next Generation and it has a profound effect on me. Picard is my role model for leadership.
Because of the invention of the replicator, people no longer starve and human wants are almost entirely eradicated. Living in a post-scarcity world, humans are now motivated to the betterment of themselves and their fellow race.
Trek has also a profound effect on human civilization. Because of Trek, someone invented the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
Trek doesn't just inspire creativity. The series uses sci-fi to ask philosophical questions. An example is in the original series episode, "A Taste of Armageddon" where Kirk and his crew encounters two planets at war. But to preserve the culture of both planets, their leaders agreed to wage the fight on a computer simulation. This prevented the destruction of their properties. In exchange, anyone who were killed in the simulation have to report to "disintegration chambers".
This allows Trek to ask us the question: If war is done by the press of a button, would we be desensitized to the idea of war?
...I better stop. I can spend the whole day just talking about Trek.
Yes, Star Trek at its best can be truly philosophical...
...although at times it manages to be both campy and preachy at the same time...
...and at times it's just... well, let's say I don't fully understand one named Kirk
If I could see any band live it would be…
Hard for me to answer since my favorite musics come from video games. I suppose if I have to choose it'll either be Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions or The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses.
My favourite movie is…
My answer is the best Star Trek movie there is: Galaxy Quest.
Its a movie about actors from a cancelled sci-fi TV series. The series was very popular, so the crew have been typecast. This caused them to resent their roles.
The movie then reveals that a race of aliens have mistaken their TV show as a "historical document". They then became the ultimate fanbois as they copy everything from the TV shows; from the philosophy to the technology. And they did.
Imagine in the real world, if our first contact with aliens who quotes Spock and presents to the human race their version of the Starship Enterprise.
The twist is that these aliens don't have the concept of fiction in their culture. They could not imagine the actors as anything less than their TV roles.
The "crew" then decided to go to outer space to solve a conflict which the aliens.
What I love about this movie is:
a) It is a love letter to Star Trek fans (IIRC, Sigourney Weaver was so happy that people understood what they were doing, since the movie is played straight)
b) As a hardcore Trekkie, I would love the idea that Star Trek is real. I swear that if someone were to tell me that Star Trek is real, I would probably react exactly like this person (warning spoilers)
c) The reactions of the Star Trek actors.
d) The set ups early in the films results in amazing payloads later on.
e) All the crew start as being "fish out of the water" where they have no idea what they are doing. When they finally accepted their role, everyone cranked their awesomeness to 11. It is the most satisfying character development from nobodies to badass I've ever witnessed in a movie.
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| By Grabthar's Hammer, go and see the movie already! |
One interesting thing about me is…
tlhIngan Hol vIghojtaH. qeq ngeDbe'choHmo' Hol jatlhwI' Hutlh. yInIDtaH!
I am learning to speak Klingon. Practicing is not easy because of the lack of language speakers. I am trying!
Reminder for new visitors! Send us your "What's Your Story" for CAPs and a chance to introduce yourself to our community!
ReplyDeleteMrValdez: I hope you enjoy my look at Star Trek: 25th Anniversary. We have a similar love of Trek, I see...
I can't wait for the first post. I'm thinking of also playing along.
DeletePlease do! (And comment in the ST post if you are playing along so you can get CAPs for it.)
DeleteThe first ST post is already locked and loaded for this Friday.
You mentioned the only episode of original Trek I remember, and for exactly the same reason I love that kind of sci-fi.
ReplyDeleteThough seeing that clip upset me. WHAT ABOUT THE PRIME DIRECTIVE, KIRK! Picard would try to talk them around, and if he couldn't would have to leave them to it - he would NOT destroy their way of life to prove a point, even if he's sure he's right. (Now here's the part when someone points out that Picard did exactly that, proving me absolutely wrong.)
I saw Galaxy Quest once and liked it so it's about time I found it again. Thanks for the reminder.
Also, Google translate thinks Klingon is Hungarian but can't translate the whole thing.
> WHAT ABOUT THE PRIME DIRECTIVE, KIRK!
DeleteIn-universe, the United Federation of Planets are still young and that outer space is still a frontier. There was no prior guideline on what is a violation and what is not. But thanks to Kirk's adventures, Picard now has a general idea on which to base his decision on whether the General Order 0 should be followed.
In-reality, the TNG writers realized, hey, let's make the Prime Directive stricter and let's revolve the conflict on that. (The debate on Pen Pals is one of my favorites discussion)
In-universe nod to Kirk's tendency of breaking directives: In DS9, the Department of Temporal Investigations noted that Kirk has 17 reported temporal violations.
> Also, Google translate thinks Klingon is Hungarian but can't translate the whole thing.
Bing can translate the simple sentences, but don't expect it to work with complicated ones (there's a reason, we use Bingon as an insult). The guy who's working on it is at the "Learn Klingon" facebook group and sometimes talk about how hard to get it working.
Lemme translate one of my sentence (told you, I'll be here whole day if you let me talk about Trek):
> tlhIngan Hol vIghojtaH
First thing first, the grammar of Klingon is Object-Verb-Subject. While in English, you would say "The Dog bites the man", in Klingon, the order would be "The man bites the dog" or "ghot chop dog".
tlhIngan is the word for Klingon. One of the jokes in Klingon is that the letter "tlh" sounds like the English letter "k" - there's no "k" in the Klingon language.
Hol is the word for language.
ghoj is the word for learn. vI- is the prefix added to a word which indicates that the subject is first person (or I) and refers to the object. -taH is a suffix which means ongoing or to continue. So vIghojtaH means, My learning is ongoing.