J Marv
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Posts posted by J Marv
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I wish they would write up a copy of the Act. Even if it was just the abstract or something. It's too vague, and they seem to just be pulling stuff out of thin air. First, it seems to be just registering. Then, it's a job. Then it's a draft. And we have no idea about any of it, other than so and so said this in book X.
It could have gone in that Civil War Files book.
And with regards to outside the US. In the Marvel universe, Canada passed a super-power registration act in 1993, and although it hasn't been mentioned in the comics in over 10 years, it has never been repealed explicitly either. Just some food for thought.
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Factor in the cost of the game (really 2, but one cart) and light gun and you're actually looking at more like $300 for the console after inflation. Also, Nintendo didn't sell at a loss, so the comparison is even more invalid as construction cost for the NES was still far lower. So really, even after inflation, you're looking at more than doubling the cost of the console. Right. Perfectly reasonable. Except, the relative cost of nearly everything else on the planet has gone down over time (except stuff with limited quantity, like land). So yeah, it is a relatively strange notion.
I agree that people are probably too hung up on the price, but don't act like it doesn't make a difference as to what little Johnny's going to get from Santa Claus this year.
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Oh. Hell. Yes.
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^^ No. And Rowling is happy with the casting, apparently.
Natalia Tena looks a lot like this girl in my major, it's a little disturbing. Still, she looks good in a sort of inexplicable way.
Tonks publicity shots please!
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It has nothing to do with acting like a vigilante. Nitro and company were just minding their own business in Stamford when the New Warriors jumped them (one of them was "spotted" taking out the trash, hardly some sort of nefarious activity). Legally, Nitro was defending himself, and not inherently doing anything illegal. When an improperly trained superhero uses his/her power, the collateral damage will be HUGELY greater than an ordinary citizen doing the same thing.
Nitro was already a wanted fugitive. There is a difference. All the people they attacked had just broken out of prison.
Let the police worry about it. The fact is, Nitro was both on drugs and had less than stellar training to rely on. His benefactor basically says he has no regard for discretion. Tangling with that man is dangerous. If they hadn't been attacked, Nitro wouldn't have killed those kids, simple as that. The New Warriors absolutely are partially to blame, and yet, without licensing or insurance or something, there's no way to hold them accountable. Speedball can't afford those damages, hell, Tony Stark couldn't pay what a jury would award those families.
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Luke Cage, IIRC, did not get his powers by choice - he was subjected to experiments without his consent. Since when is being victimized by a criminal in and of itself a criminal act? Why should he be arrested if he is not bothering anyone and not acting as a vigilante?
But by that logic, mutants, people born with powers (who for some reason are not mutants), or people who got them by accident are exempt too. And that's BS.
It has nothing to do with acting like a vigilante. Nitro and company were just minding their own business in Stamford when the New Warriors jumped them (one of them was "spotted" taking out the trash, hardly some sort of nefarious activity). Legally, Nitro was defending himself, and not inherently doing anything illegal. When an improperly trained superhero uses his/her power, the collateral damage will be HUGELY greater than an ordinary citizen doing the same thing.
Let's say you're Cyclops, and you never met Charles Xavier or attracted anybody else's attention (but you still had the sunglasses, let's pretend) and someone pulled a gun on you. With no formal training, you'd let loose on that guy, because, honestly, what else could you do? And lets say you end up burning down a building. You did nothing but defend yourself, but it costs somebody a huge amount of cash. Why shouldn't you be held liable for that?
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Ooh, hero into a villain sounds fun.
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Adi Granov's Iron Man? Sweet. Hopefully that's true, cause his Iron Man rocks. Not sure how well it could be implemented sans CG though.
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Not these Sentinels, though. Iceman, Cyclops, Beast, and Archangel hit one with everything they had and it just shrugged it off. It even tracked them well after they escaped! (EDIT: Well, it actually lost them, now that I go back and read it again, but it claimed it could)
If one can handle that team, then one could easily whoop up on Captain America.
And even though they have human pilots, not even Emma could evade capture, and she's currently THE most powerful telepath (hero, anyways) in the Marvel Universe (at least until Quicksilver runs into Xavier).
Anyway, it seems to be a political thing after a little more research. The O*N*E Sentinels seem to be there just as much to protect the mutants as to keep them in line (hence Bishop's comments about O*N*E). Still, if the O*N*E is concerned with the weakened position of the X-Men, shouldn't they be just as concerned with a fucking superhero war in New York City? Plus, the current Sentinels were developed by Stark, so why don't they just put the capekillers in them?
It's a relatively little thing, but it bugs the crap outta me.
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So I'm caught up on all the Civil War stuff now, and one thing really bothers me.
SHIELD is fighting with one armed tied behind its back. They're not using the Sentinels for anything other than to keep the mutants out of it(most of whom would probably stay out anyway, with some exceptions). If the Sentinels are equipped to fight the X-Men and the 198, why in the world would they be incapable of taking down Cap & company? Unless they have their hands full at the Mansion, which doesn't appear to be the case, as they sent units after the X-Men once they left the school grounds, and Slayton referred to them as "pushovers."
So, why aren't they using the Sentinels against the anti-SRA group? Is it a political thing? I did notice that they weren't allowed to use lethal force on the 198, but could with their unregistered benefactors, so maybe it's a "Sentinel's are for use against mutants only" kind of thing, but that would be lame and stupid. They were developed to stop dangerous individuals with super-powers, and aren't being used entirely for that purpose.
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I'm still really, really wanting to get these DVDs.
You really, really should. It's an awesome series. But really, all you need to know to know that it is awesome is that it's Shinichiro Watanabe.
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Take this with a whole shaker of salt, but there's a rumor going around that Nintendo has been deliberately underpowering it's Wii demos so they can announce a huge leap in expected performance of the system shortly before launch. (Link)
Honestly, I wouldn't be that surprised if this were the case. Given all the information about the Wii that has been leaked from ATI and other hardware sources, it should be a much better performer than Nintendo's let on so far (though they themselves haven't made any concrete statements). ATI officials have hinted at a PPU (Physics Processing Unit, think Ageia's PhysX), which would be a huge boon as neither the XBox 360 nor PS3 will have a dedicated PPU.
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At least it still says "Work in Progress."
EDIT: And upon some further research, "Incinerator" seems to actually be Blackout with a temporary name, although Bay has said all of the leaked names that aren't Optimus Prime, Bumbebee, Megatron and Starscream are not to be taken as truth, even though he himself leaked confirmation of Scorpinok.
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It's a hovering garage creeper. Hoverboards can't be very far off now. Of course, the shop air cords could become a problem, but one thing at a time.
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The symbiote suit looks good, but not right. If that makes any sense.
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http://boards.transformersmovie.com/showpo...35&postcount=10
That link has an early version of Starscream, and what I think is just an early version of Incinerator, though the poster speculates that it's Blackout.
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Honestly, the movie doesn't look half-bad as an action-flick.
Oh, and nobody here will probably care, but Clev was bitching on the Oratory about the cop car being unrealistic. Many police and highway patrol organizations use Camaro cruisers. The unrealistic thing about it is that it's a manual. The vast majority of cop cars (in the US anyway) are automatics.
EDIT: I've done some research, and found something interesting:
Actually, there were B4C special service Camaros sold with 6 speed transmissions. 125 in 2002 to be exact. Why 2002? That was the year that hood scoop in the movie was used on production Camaros, though I can't find a picture of a B4C with that particular hood (though there are some with other styles of hood scoops).
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^
Actually, pricing wise, $19.99 a movie is approximately equal to $1.99 a television show episode. It's really about the price you pay to get it on DVD. Think about it, if a TV season has 24 episodes, and retails for $49.99, you pay a little over $2 an episode and get bonus stuff like "behind the scenes" looks and director's commentaries as well as a hard copy of the show. If you buy it on iTunes or whatever for $2, you get a soft copy of inferior quality without any bonus features. If $19.99 is too much to pay for a movie download (and I agree, it is), then $1.99 is too much for a TV show.
I think online services like Ruckus will be the future of movie downloads though. Movies reasonably priced by age (older movies are less expensive to download or even free) and demand (more popular movies debut at higher initial costs).
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More on the Illinois thing:
Illinois Ordered to Pay in Game Ban CaseFrom Associated Press
August 11, 2006 8:10 PM EDT
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The federal judge who ruled that Illinois unconstitutionally banned the sale of violent or sexual video games to minors has another message for the state: Pay up.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly this week ordered the state to pay more than $510,000 in legal fees to three business groups that sued over the Safe Games Illinois Act: the Entertainment Software Association, the Video Software Dealers Association and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and others who pushed for the measure argued that children are harmed by exposure to games in which characters use violence or engage in sexual acts. But shortly before Jan. 1, when the law would have gone into effect, the judge barred the state from enforcing it.
Kennelly ruled in December that the law would violate the First Amendment and that there was not a compelling enough reason, such as preventing imminent violence, to allow it to stand. He added that state officials came "nowhere near" demonstrating that the new law was constitutional.
The state has appealed the judge's December ruling but will pay the companies' legal fees, Blagojevich spokesman Gerardo Cardenas said.
Blagojevich complained Friday that the video game companies are being represented by Jenner & Block, a law firm that works for the state on other matters. He objected to a firm simultaneously working for the state and suing the state and said he wants to study prohibiting such situations in the future.
Blagojevich said trying to ban violent or sexual games still was the right thing to do, despite the cost.
Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, issued a news release saying the judge's rulings "send two irrefutable messages - not only are efforts to ban the sale of violent video games clearly unconstitutional, they are a waste of taxpayer dollars."
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From Gamespy PC:
Director Announced for Halo Film(PC)Rookie director will helm the motion picture adaptation of Bungie's hit FPS.
By Li C. Kuo | Aug. 9, 2006
Microsoft has just announced that a director has been chosen for the upcoming Halo movie. The name of the lucky filmmaker is Neill Blomkamp, a native of South Africa. Blomkamp is best known for commercials and short films, including one short titled Alive in Joburg which tells the story of alien refugees in the future. Halo will be his very first big-budget feature film. Blomkamp received an Emmy nomination for working on an episode of the television series Dark Angel, starring Jessica Alba.
Mary Parent and Scott Stuber, both of whom were producers for You, Me and Dupree, as well as Peter Schlessel, prodcuer of Stay Alive, are listed as producers for Halo. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, the same duo behind the The Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong, are both executive producers on the project, while Weta Digital will be handling all the special effects.
Microsoft's announcement includes a quote from Jackson saying, "As a gaming fan, I'm excited to bring Halo's premise, action and settings to the screen with all the specificity and reality today's technology can provide ... With Neill on board, I'm even more excited by the potential of this project." Halo is scheduled for a major release in the summer of 2008.
Probably best that an unknown got the job. And if Peter Jackson thinks he's the right man, I'll give it a shot.
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A new House Bill.
From ArsTechnica.
Congress seeks truth in video game ratings8/7/2006 6:13:59 PM, by Eric Bangeman
Ever since the infamous Hot Coffee screwup by Rockstar Games, video game content has been a hot-button topic for many of our elected officials looking to score points with their constituencies. That's the best way to explain the glut of legislation intended to hinder the ability of minors to buy certain video games, despite their lack of constitutionality.
A group of congressmen have decided to join in the fun by introducing the "Truth in Video Game Rating Act" (PDF). Sponsored by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC), and Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT), the law would give the Federal Trade Commission broad powers to regulate video game ratings and force some significant changes to the game rating system.
Changes to the ratings system
In particular, the ESRB would have to make some costly changes to its ratings process, as rating games on partial content would be verboten. The FTC would devise rules that "shall prohibit any person or entity from providing a content rating of any video or computer game that is to bear a label containing such content rating when sold or distributed in interstate commerce unless such person or entity has reviewed the content of the video or computer game in its entirety."
Beyond that, the bill would also make failing to disclose game content illegal as well as the "gross mischaracterization of content" within a particular title.
The Truth in Video Game Rating Act would also study the "problem" of online ratings. Under another provision of the Act, the Comptroller General would have to conduct a study to determine the effectiveness of the current ratings system with regard to online play. That same study would look also look at the ESRB's rating system as a whole and explore the possibility of an independent rating system for video games as an alternative.
This is not the first attempt by the federal government to establish oversight over the video game ratings system. Late in 2005, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) introduced the Family Entertainment Protection Act. FEPA, which is currently languishing in committee, would punish retailers for selling M- and AO-rated games to children, establish an annual review of the ESRB ratings system to gauge its effectiveness, and require the FTC to take complaints from consumers about deceptive ratings.
Prospects
The new legislation is problematic on a couple of fronts. First of all are the ever-present First Amendment issues. The ESRB's rating system is purely voluntary, and as such, it would be problematic for the government to intervene in the ratings process.
Perhaps even more alarming for the ESRB is the prospect of having to look at every frame of a video game in order to issue a rating. Currently, developers submit a reel with representative game content to the ESRB. Once that video is screened, the ESRB issues a rating. Watching the entirety of an epic motion picture like LOTR: Return of the King is one thing; looking through the tens of hours of footage that could be accessible from within a game is another thing entirely.
Given that FEPA has never made it out of committee, the prospects for the Truth in Video Game Rating Act are probably not too stellar during the current session. Besides, the ESRB seems determined to ensure that another Hot Coffee incident never happens. Misrepresenting game content to the board will cost the developer $1 million and developers are already required to document all hidden content. However, it is an election year and video game violence is always a popular hot-button issues for elected representatives to fall back on, so anything can happen.
Making raters view EVERYTHING in the game is beyond retarded.
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Hilarious. How are you going to fine a 10-year old anyway? They don't have ID (other than maybe a social security card, but that's not photo).
And no court has found a strong enough link between violence and video games because there isn't one. Movies are stronger, as though there is no interaction, the images are more realistic.
Civil War *SPOILERS!*
in Marvel
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They're not contradicting themselves with the mutants. All of the mutants are de facto registered because of O*N*E. Some of the mutants are against it and some are for it, but the government knows who they are.
EDIT: Yoda beat me to it.