The Mask of Norro

Yeeaaaaah, Lorina and I did the same thing. We were behind like four episodes or so so we just spent a day catching up on everything. It's... it's really, really sucky knowing we still have to wait each week for another episode because damn it they love their cliffhangers so much.

At the same time it's really nice because it's been some time since the last anime we waited for in anticipation week to week. The characters are really nicely developed so far and the story just keeps getting more and more fleshed out and complex. I love it.

Deadline is this Saturday, people... c'mon now, let's see a few more before we have a default winner come out of this :/

I've never seen a forfeit. I've seen a mafia member choose not to use his kill because it was impossible for there to be any conclusion but a town victory, but that's not the case in Pokemon, so it should be played out.

Video Game Characters Mafia. Jam was given an option, to be fair, of fighting through anyway and losing the next day, or simply forfeiting the game, which is what he chose. Now, granted, it was an option he was given, but nevertheless, I have never and still do not see any problem with the last scum player forfeiting if there's no conceivable way for them to win the game, which is where I felt I was at. It's just a difference in opinion.

Here's a simple solution for everyone -> lynch all metagamers.

A good notion, but once again, forfeiting isn't metagaming. So, yeah, I respectfully disagree with anyone who argues that it is. I've always allowed it in my own mafia games, it's just never had to be used before is all.

I'd give Pokemon Mafia a thousand facepalms right now, but sadly there are image limits on EWB.

Uuuuuuuuuugh Lorina and I are so behind on Pandora Hearts, and we're still stuck on the third or forth episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya, and I don't think she's watched anymore episodes of Real Drive either. We're in a bit of an anime block right now, just too much else going on for us to think to watch any, and we both complain about it constantly

Did EddieG plan to have wrestling rules this month? Gah, sorry guys, I was just trying to put something together I figured would be easy enough for everyone but still a bit challenging, I didn't know there was anything actually planned

If we're going to continue this thread, let's continue it on without feeding the flames of Cartman's post up there. I've already dealt with it, just move on from it folks. If he comes back with more, we can handle it then.

Welcome to the 4th monthly graphics contest.

With the suspension of EddieG, I've taken over this month's competition. I figured maybe trying something a little simple, but a little different, might be a good approach for you guys and get your creative juices flowing (Y)

Rules: Congratulations! You are a graphic designer. In order to flourish out there in the wild, wacky world of design, you're going to need an attractive card, aren't you? Ah, but you're a designer without a business card... whatever shall you do?

Your aim:

• Design an attractive, effective, eye-catching business card.
  
• It must be for yourself, as a graphic designer.
  
• If you want, you can design the front and back of the card.
  
• You can make yourself your own company, or stay individual.
  
• You may add on whatever other things you do you deem appropriate for the card.
  
• If you already have a card, make a new one! Challenge yourself.
  

Height: 250

Width: 450

Deadline: Since it's 5 days late, I'll give you 5 days extra. Saturday, July 25th 2009 11:59pm CET

Meh, I let judges vote as they want. No sense in limiting how they score things, we're low enough on activity in these things as is. Silly or not, I'll allow it

Yep.

We need a Bat Signal smiley, I say (Y)

So.... what happened to my Webcom Mafia, RW? I noticed it's not on the medium games list any longer and, well... I don't remember losing my spot/giving it up >_>

June 2009 (Results Thread)

Rules: A band or single musician (up to you to choose) has decided to take his career to Hollywood, as an actual movie star.

Your aim:

• Create the billboard promoting this movie
  
• Pick the band/musician
  
• Pick the movie name
  
• Pick a release date
  
• Pick an actor/actress as a co-star
  

Height: 300

Width: 600

Winners: kempay (1st Place, 24.8/30), Livid Soprano (2nd Place, 24.7/30), --Matt-- (3rd Place, 18.5/30)

May 2009 (Results Thread)

Rules: The WWE is making their own version of the Main Event Mafia versus Frontline fued.

Your aim:

• Pick 4 members for the Main Event Mafia (This must include a world champion.. ECW included)
  
• Pick 4 members for the Frontline (This must include a midcard champion, such as the United States or Intercontinental)
  
• You must think of a name for both factions, and try to keep them as far away removed as MEM and Frontline as possible.
  
• You must create the poster advertising the PPV with their final 4 vs 4 showdown.
  
• The poster must have the name of the PPV, the names of the factions, and of course a date and location.
  

Height: In between 400 and 600

Width: In between 300 and 500

Just make sure it's poster size

Winners: kempay (1st Place, 30/40), The Modern Way (2nd Place, 29/40), Chief87 (3rd Place, 27.5/40)

Sorry for the delay there folks, between EddieG's recent suspension and my own ongoing events at home, things got delayed a little. I stepped in for the time being to take care of the monthly contests, once EddieG returns I'll hand the reigns back to him (Y)

Anyway, down to business...

--Matt--

Docpepper: 6/10

AD: 6/10

Norro: 6.5/10

Total: 18.5/30

a good graphic overall. the background is the highspot for me . the text is ok. and the Mel cut looks to have different shading that Grohl.

Hard to see this as a billboard, truth be told... let alone a billboard for a movie. Lighting on the cuts are weird, the outer glow on them kind-of looks cheesy. Not digging the logo and the typography isn't exactly appealing (especially the lower text... black type with a white glow CAN work at times, but not with the way you've done it unfortunately).

El Presidente

Docpepper: 5/10

AD: 5/10

Norro: 7.5/10

Total: 17.5/30

the background is bit simple. the main downside for me is the gradient on the text.

Damn. This really stands out to me as something good. Background works well, cut looks great... honestly, the downfall to this piece is the typography. Remember: this is a billboard, you can't overload the viewer with information because it's going to be hard to process it driving down the highway. The logo isn't that appealing, the type is definitely too small for a billboard... this works well as a wall-advertisement, something someone can stop and stand in front of to view, rather than something on a billboard where people are flying by it trying to mae out the site at the bottom.

nufan

Docpepper: 6.8/10

AD: 4/10

Norro: 4.5/10

Total: 15.3/30

simple design. the whole left side is blurry to me though. The text is placed good. the graident on some of the typo is hit or miss in spots. but overall it's good.

Sometimes, simple is great. This is not one of those times. The cut looks awful due to the effect on it and really, the gray you've used here isn't flattering to the piece. The red/pink text color looks awful on top of it in the font you've used, and the bold white type at the bottom honestly just unbalances the entire right side of it. Not the best of efforts, I have to say.

Closed and Moved to Archives

Docpepper: 5/10

AD: 4/10

Norro: 6/10

Total: 15/30

The cut of Jermaine seems a bit to dark to me. The main text is hard to read. but the background and rest fo the typo are ok.

This is the same issue as Presidente: it's a billboard. Tiny text crammed together makes for a difficult to read billboard driving by on the highway. In this instsance as well, the cuts are mis-matched not only in lighting but in image quality, and the cut on the right has part of his arm erased off crudely rather than a simple fade or something into the background. Definitely need to work on image transitioning like that. Typography isn't that great, logo is waaaay too downplayed and honestly isn't that well designed either. The idea is there, but... the execution is unfortunately sorely lacking.

kempay

Docpepper: 8.8/10

AD: 8/10

Norro: 8/10

Total: 24.8/30

I love the simplicity of this. to me the star of the graphic is the typo. it's placed great and not overdone. the only downside is the woman's face and faded out text on the left.

This is a much better kind-of simple, a MUCH better kind-of simple. The use of white and harsh-lighted cuts is wonderful, and truth be told your typography IS decent... not fantastic, but I'd say it's good. Loving the simplicity of the logo working with the piece as a whole, the tagline being faded and somewhat hard to see is great considering I'm assuming that's what you were aiming for due to what the line actually says. I'm not liking the way you've set up the type at the top, it feels unbalanced and honestly the font isn't nearly as nice as the ones you've used at the bottom. If it's the same font as the tagline, it honestly looks bad larger than smaller, so maybe a different font would suite the top more? All in all, this was an excellent effort with good results, just a few tweaks to it and it could have easily won you this for me.

Livid Soprano

Docpepper: 8.7/10

AD: 7/10

Norro: 9/10

Total: 24.7/30

Same grunge style I've seen from you before , but that's a good thing because you do it extremely well. blending,text placement and effects are great as well..

THIS is how you do a billboard. Low on type, gets all the information out there that's needed, the background fits the feel of the billboard perfectly, cuts look great and fit the style, the logo is perfect for something so simple and all the type fits well... well, except for the type at the bottom. Not liking the white type, I'd say getting rid of the drop shadow on that white type would have done you a whole lot of good, actually. Also, sizing it up so it matches the size of the type above it in width could have balanced things out nicely as well, I think.

Hell of a competition this month, guys. Livid deserves credit for coming within literally .1 of tying for first place... ridiculously close finish, that. Expect July's rules to go up sometime tonight or tomorrow, and thanks for participating!

With Eddie G gone I'll be taking this over, guys.

Judges, get your scores into me ASAP. I'll have mine ready by tomorrow night, so if you've sent your stuff to Eddie, be sure to just send it back over here. Looking to get scores up and the new contest for July started within the next few days (Y)

Damn regional DVDs

BAH, you foreigners and your... your MULTI-REGION DVDS... don't you know we like things ONE WAY here in America?! I shun your disgusting pig-like DVD players!

... so yeah how much do those usually run for?

. . .

Why do the UK ones HAVE to be Region 2? Why not one my damn computer/DVD player/what have you can read? Fuck's sake I just checked Amazon and it's like over $50 there for an American one. WHY DO THE REGIONS MAKE SUCH A DIFFERENCE IN PRICE?! THERE IS NO WAY THAT £11.98 = $53.99 >_<

PROBABLY STILL STOK BEING A LYING DOUCHE I THINK GUYS PROBABLY

Watched the Gurren Lagann movie. It was hilariously rushed, well beyond anything I expected to see in terms of how rushed it was. How do they handle the episode 4 fiasco? They break into a fast-paced montage of clips set to ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH and call it a day. Don't change the style for it or anything, so even though they try to speed through it you can still easily pick up the difference.

Seriously, the only good bits were the new intro, some of the new bits revolving around Simon at what would have been slightly after episode 8, and then the new fight scene where

Really, the most I can say is that someone should cut out all the extra scenes and slap them onto the actual episodes, that would be pretty awesome. Except for the final fight, while it was really cool and everything I'd really rather stick to how they handled all those fights in the series, rather than the one in the movie.

A couple other things... Lorina and I need to catch up on Pandora Hearts. We fell behind because of stuff going on but we're planning on dedicating a day to playing catch-up. She's also picked up on another series I haven't watched with her yet, something called "Real Drive". So far she really likes it. We've also began watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya for the first time, and so far are enjoying that as well.

Stok sucks for misleading me, by the by. I was at the con and everywhere I looked for Ouran box-sets (those two separate ones that box half the series that Stok said were £12) they were priced at a ridiculous $42.88. I'm almost positive exchange rates between our two countries aren't THAT bad, so obviously Stok is a filthy liar (or they're filthy con artists. Probably Stok's one though. Probably. )

Anyway, like I said, notes from the con at some point. Nothing really of interest happened there Sunday so it's mostly going to talk about Friday and Saturday... where plenty things of interest happened >_>

So yeah, saw the trailer for the live action Avatar movie. Well, the teaser, rather.

... gotta say, it fills me with hope. That looked fucking incredible. Though the kid playing Aang... ehhhh, I dunno. He's just... I dunno, something about the kid is off and it's a stretch seeing him as Aang, but maybe if he acts the part well and isn't always SERIOUSFACEMCANGERPANTS then he'll do a good job with it.

On another topic: notes from Metrocon! That was the convention that I went to over the weekend. I'll go ahead and put up the little end-of-day notes I took about the event sometime this week. It was a lot of fun, albeit a little lacking in terms of interesting panels for me. Ah well, at least there was a lot happening to keep up my interest.

Plus I got some kickass swag from the thing so I can't complain, really.

My worst round was the Batman one where I just made him the don. Not sure why I thought that would work all too well, I think I tried to add something to it, but it didn't really work.

Still, would have been nice for this thing to end with three judges, even if they weren't the original three. I think the three of us deserved that much for an ending after that