The Mask of Norro

what's in it?

Well, right now I've got a bunch of my work in it, separated into sections by designed divider pages that tell the person flipping through it what's in the upcoming section (i.e.: illustrations, advertising, print design, etc.). I also have some physical material, such as example DVD covers in DVDs, an interactive CD I designed using Director, my business cards, business card holder, a small book I designed, my resume, and some other designs of mine.

Still, I've got a lot of updating to do, this thing's almost a year old now, so yeah. I mean I have a few recent things in there, but nothing much. Going to be reorganizing things soon.

I think my plan as far as portfolios go is that I'm going to make a small magazine-like book of my designs at as cheap as possible and get them mass-produced so I can have them as a sort-of artsy portfolio to send out to potential clients, and then have my larger, more bulkier portfolio with me when I come in for any interviews, so they can have a look at more of my work.

Since some people might not read everything, just let me restate this: The Deadline for all predictions is Monday, December 22nd 2008 at 11:00 PM EST.

I have an incredibly basic one right now. It's a thick, three-ring binder style one with various works of mine in it in protectors. I plan on doing a proper book portfolio though when I've the time as a more artistic, professional one. I actually need to update my portfolio too, got a lot of old stuff in it :\

Ruki: The "Battle of the Seed ___ Runner-Ups" matches are four-way matches. This is why there is a Runner-Up option under the "Battle of the Seed ____ Winners", because the runner-up in that match gets put into the runner-up match for that seed.

In your predictions ballot, you should have Pokemon Trainer added in the Seed One runner-up, Wolf added in the Seed Two runner-up, and Zelda added in the Seed Three runner-up.

EDIT: You too, cram.

In fact, just for everybody:

IF YOU ARE GOING TO PARTICIPATE, PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK THE EXAMPLE BALLOT FOR HOW TO FILL OUT THE BALLOT PROPERLY. THANK YOU.

Welcome to the Super Smash Brothers Brawl Prediction League for the EWB Coin Op. This is an official league to test and see the prediction skills of EWBers towards Brawl. You do not actually need to have played Brawl before to participate, but it undoubtedly helps, as you can at least figure what characters fair better as CPUs.

The league will basically see various CPU simulated matches fought between various numbers of characters on various stages, with various weapon settings. When a match or series is put up for predictions, there will be a voting time frame for everyone to participate in. When it's over, the votes will be counted, the match(es) simulated, and the results posted. An official leader board will remain updated in this first post so that you can see where you rank among fellow EWBers.

Basically, it's a very straight-forward prediction thread, with a rankings system and whatnot.

So, with that out of the way... here are the upcoming league events:

Voters click below to view and vote on the upcoming event:

Be sure to have all predictions for this event posted in-thread and on-time! When the event has finished, votes will be marked, results posted, and an official leaderboard will go up to be used from now on. The next event will be the final round of this event.

As for why I've decided to do this, well... I need to get 500 hours in on my game time to complete a challenge (I have like half of that), so I started doing 99 stock CPU matches for the hell of it and figured while they were going, why not turn them into something easy to run? And so, here we are.

Respond with your predictions ASAP and let's get down to business!

I thought theyd already done a live action Dragonball movie that Bill Goldberg was in. I never saw it, or any photos about it..but I had heard of it long ago.

No. No.... just no. If Bill Goldberg was in a Dragonball movie at some point in the past, it would have been well documented, covered, and known of on the internet. Trust me. You would have pictures, videos, audio, the works.

Though I have to say, Goldberg would make a damn fine Nappa. If Dragonball gets a sequel with Vegeta as the lead villain, we had damn sure better hear the over 9000 line just to make things that much more spectacularly bad >_>

Dear Wallflower,

Do your male lead characters need to have such girly fucking lips? And couldn't you have found a better voice actor for the short, blond haired one?

Sincerely,

Ruki

It's a shouja anime that makes fun of shoujo animes... the guys are fucking naked throughout the introduction, and they're glittering. You're complaining about their lips?

As an aside, once again, it DOES make fun of the feminine nature of the characters. The short-haired blonde one winds up cross-dressing to try to protect someone down the line and it's constantly pointed out that people mistake him for a girl at times. The reasoning for the voice actor (I'm presuming you're watching the dub, which I actually prefer more than the Japanese) is mainly because the voice actor has the character sound incredibly girly.

I have girly lips.

But really, it's a shoujo anime, so you should never be surprised by these things.

... yeah, basically that. Though, once again, it's a shoujo anime that makes fun of other shoujo animes.

Vinny: I don't know how the manga is. Dunno if the show follows it well, dunno anything about it, 'cause I've not read a single page of the manga yet

But what I do know is that the show is bloody hilarious. When you start watching it, it seems so goofy and over-the-top that you can't help but wonder just what the hell's going to happen, and you wind up watching some more and next thing you know you've gone through a few episodes and can't help but want to see more. It's nothing to take seriously, it's just a damn fine comedic anime, I think.

New Trailer

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UAjmbASkkLY

I got Star Trek 90210 roll'd.

We just watched episode 13 of the Wallflower... holy shit that was incredibly hilarious. For those of you (read: Ruki) who are starting to follow it, I'll put this in spoiler tags, but...

Christ, there's yet to be an episode where I've not at least had a few decent laughs during it. I don't know, maybe it's better watching it with someone or something but thus far I've seriously enjoyed it. It's funny, it's over-the-top, and it doesn't take itself all too seriously. It can have a serious story one episode and then just go batshit insane the next, and somehow not break continuity. I love it.

Oh right, I was meaning to link this in here. So Norris, you know how Dragonball and the Keanu Reeves as Spike things were pretty awful film adaptation moments this year? Well, uh.

Cry, Norro. Cry.

The only one on that list I agree with is the guy from Twilight for Sokka, I think he could do a decent job with the role. The rest are just... my God. Just, just what the hell. Jesse McCartney? Really?

A few things.

1. Jesus, when is the Gurren Lagann movie hitting the net? I want to see it.

2. Soul Eater has been fantastic as of late. The latest line of episodes has been superb, and I especially loved the chain resonance during the fight. Mosquito is actually quickly growing on me as a character, too, which is interesting considering my slight distaste for him when he first appeared. Medusa, also, is becoming even more awesome by each episode... despite everything seemingly going against her at the start, she's not only turning things around but is about to make things really, really difficult for Arachne I'd imagine. Oh yeah, and the current ending theme? By far my favorite so far. Seriously, I love it. I also love the new opener, actually, ridiculous though some of the lyrics may be. Just sounds nice, and gets you pumped for the show.

3. Lorina and I have started watching The Wallflower again, picking up where we left off. Currently we're on, like, episode 11 or something... fucking hilarious. Seriously, this is probably one of the funniest animes I've seen in a good while. It's a great comedy, it spoofs the shit out of all these different anime trends, and I'm lovg every moment. Just how over-the-top everything is and that, for some reason, every other minute is spent with someone just screaming at each other. Jesus, the fact that they turned a ping-pong match into some sort of spiritual battle between characters that ends in a face-crunching flying kiss in the center of the table that somehow FREEZES EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE while a massive BEAM OF LIGHT engulfs the whole goddamn place was just hysterical. This is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, simply because of how well crafted the comedic elements of the show are. It's over-the-top, but it's yet to grow tiring, and I love it.

4. Afro Samurai is fucking ace. Seriously, Lorina and I finally caught the full thing on TV, and just wow. The story, the character design and development, just everything and the way it was handled was brilliance. And it does help that Samuel L. Jackson is the fucking lead... he actually is a pretty damn good voice actor. All-in-all, I'd watch it again, the whole thing was pretty damn intense.

... and that's it for now, I think. Seriously though, any word on the Gurren Lagann movie? Did it ever actually come out in September, or was it pushed back, or what? Any news is good news for me, really.

Well, unless the news is that it was canceled or something. That wouldn't be good news >_>

It's taken this long for someone to explode on someone in Mythology Mafia. I'll be honest, I am proud that my long-ass game still has the ability to draw some fire out of people, even if it is directed at each other

It would have been at some point in the last year and a half, because you called something I did retarded, and given my line of work I took offense to that particular word.

Oh, oh that. No, no we resolved that, remember? It began and it ended practically in the same day

Yeah, always remember that anyone, no matter what role they have, can always be recruited into a cult if that game has a cult, and not all games take away the powers of the people recruited into the cult.

In DCDM, I was recruited, but kept my ability. Some other mafia games strip the ability away. I was fortunate, because that would have painted a huge bullseye on me for the town lynch had I lost my ability at that point.

I gave one of those spur of the moment bannings to Norro like a year and a half ago

Do what? Wait, now I'm confused. How the hell did you ever ban me from your games? Did I ever even... did I ever even make an attempt to join any of your games in the past year and a half? I don't even recall you having any >_>

Well except for DCDM but you get the point.

Wait and I was a part of Return to the Golden City as well (I think that was within a year and a half ago even though it feels like longer). Okay so now I'm legit confused because I didn't even try to join Transformers Mafia. What games are we talking about here, Plubs? >_>

To be fair, it's a small game.

Still, odds of a hit off the first lynch weren't exactly that great. It was easier once Ruki was modkilled, but it was still a longshot, and they made it. Not bad at all.

DAY ONE

Vote Count

Mr. Evil Guy - 2 (-A-, FlatDoughnut)

FlatDoughnut - 6 (Mr. Potato Head, Pesci, Mr. Evil Guy, Essa, C-MIL, Sousa)

FlatDoughnut is lynched. He was an Assassin. No votes may be cast now until FD posts his kill.

Also, thanks to Ruki for helping me double check the votes. Don't let the typing fool you, I'm very drunk right now.

:o :o :o :o :o :o

Holy shit, well played guards, well fucking played. Rarely do we see even in a standard mafia game a scum get hit off a random bandwagon right off the start.

Poor GoGo. He gets the muses in mine, and then he has to rap in Saved By The Bell. I think he's proper annoyed by all these roleposting requirements at this point >_>

This belongs in the Coin-Op Arcade, so I'll be moving it there.

But to answer your question, yes. There was a very old DOS-based game I can't remember the name of, that wasn't very good at all (I believe ratings were randomly generated). If you look around, it shouldn't be too hard to find a demo of a game called TV Manager - I've never played past the demo, but it looked decent for its time (which was a few years ago).

The best game along those lines is Primetime!, which was developed by a guy named Lee from a company called Bogus Entertainment. You were in charge of a major network (only the broadcast networks, I believe, not cable), but could purchase shows, create pilots, adjust the schedule, all sorts of things. Scotsman did a very funny review of it where I believe he created the 'Michael Cole Variety Hour' and promoted the hell out of it. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find this game anywhere for a few years now - legally or otherwise.

http://www.globalshareware.com/Games/Simul.../PrimeTime.html

Is that it? It has a buy now option - not sure if it works, though.

Right game, but I'm a little leery of that sort of site.

My "website safety" thing on Mozilla has that site in the red. Rarely do I see it in the red, most of the time everything's green. Says it's been ranked as a '1' for trustworthiness, vendor reliability, and privacy protection, so... yeah. Good call on being leery.

What the f-- Ruki, seriously, what the hell was that in Trad Maf? Seriously? Seriously.

Can you really find enough Scrubs characters to fill 45 roles, though?

Do not underestimate me.

In any event, if I were to do a Scrubs game, it would be one of the first mafia games I'd do where I set a roster limit. I actually have a decent idea of how I'd run it, so yeah.

Hell, I'll run a Scrubs mafia when MythMaf is over and I put it through the waiting list if you people want. I love the show, I wouldn't be fussed to run a Scrubs Mafia game that wouldn't suck >_>

I only ever announce an end-game when the end-game is literally upon everyone and there's nothing they can do to stop it. That, and when end-game is announced, I freeze everything in-game anyway, so people can't take back votes/etc. or, if it's night, people can't change targets/send in late ability PMs/etc.

Basically, when end-game gets triggered, that's when it's announced. Otherwise, I tend not to tell anyone anything about there being a possible endgame coming.

I like how Norro needs to write two essay-length posts just to tell people he's considering running WebCom IV.

I like how to this day people still don't seem to understand that if there is an opportunity for me to tl;dr the shit out of everyone, I'm going to take it.

Generally speaking, I can handle games with up to 40 players tops in them. MythMaf has been dragging on not because of my inability to handle the game size so much as my inability to handle the game size during my old schedule. Because I was being worked so many hours and had so much else to do, I didn't exactly have all the time in the world to handle the game.

I found out Saturday that I was laid off from my job (It was retail and meh, I'm starting to branch out now with my graphic designs... contract work should hopefully be easy to come by soon), so I suddenly have plenty of time to get MythMaf up to speed.

The other problem, though, is player activity. Generally activity is great if the game is active, MythMaf is suffering because it drug because of my schedule.

If Webcom IV, for example, had exactly 40 players... I could honestly handle that. I could balance the system out, I could keep things moving, it's really not too difficult to handle. It's a matter of scheduling everything is all. Sure, it would be challenging, but still easily doable to be honest.

I prefer the larger game format for the Webcom series simply because of the variety it brings and balance issues with my groups. MythMaf was a step in another direction and though I've enjoyed it, it's not going as I'd hoped it would (again, due mostly to scheduling). The next MythMaf I run will be MUCH more organized and put-together than this one, and the same goes for if I actually go through with the next installment to the Webcom series.