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All We Have Left Is Faith


Eyru

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Those of you who have played the BZPRPG in recent years might remember the banners I created for the 2011 reboot. They were, in a word, cute; I screencapped some images from the Mata Nui Online Game and pasted some text on top. Some were boring, some looked cool. They served their purpose: to advertise the BZPRPG.

 

As summer comes to an end three years later, I find myself in that rare lull between the end of my summer job and the beginning of school. Bored, I decided to whip up a couple BZPRPG-inspired banners, just like old times. Here's one of them:

 

 

tahubanbancopy3_zpsfac5f82b.jpg

 

 

 

Is your curiosity piqued? Basically, the BZPRPG reboot started under similar conditions to 2001 canon: the Makuta cast his shadow over Mata Nui, the Toa Mata came to overthrow him, yadda yadda yadda. Only, in our story, something different happened: they failed. Tahu, Gali, and the others fell to Makuta, and he was free to unleash his shadows on the island. For a hundred years, the Matoran desperately held their own against the forces of evil, with nothing left save the hope that Mata Nui would raise up new heroes to finish what the First Toa could not.

 

What happens next? You'll have to pop over to the BZPRPG to find out. Might as well make a profile and jump in while you're there; it's a ton of fun!

 

Anywho, hope ya like. All comments appreciated. :)

 

:e:

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I was considering rejoining the game, but then I read Nuju Metru's guide and saw just how far this strayed from the true spirit of Bionicle.

 

Granted I completely threw that spirit out the window the first time I joined the game, but I have since stopped doing that, apologized for it, and taken a leave of absence.

 

The Great Spirit from the very beginning of the story's creation was a giant robot. That was hinted at several times and it was the story's big reveal. The BZPRPG took that away, along with the Bohrok.

 

And the guide specifically says to use humans as a guide for how strong your characters are, when we all know even a Matoran is slightly more durable and physically strong than a human, plus whatever their elemental trait is. (Heat resistance, greater strength, etc)

 

If it stuck to how the Bionicle universe and it's inhabitants really were described in the books, then I'd be more interested.

Pk57sNJ.jpg

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Nice work, Eyru! :) You've blended the MNOG-style art with a more natural-looking effect really well, in a way that kind of evokes the BZPRPG itself: a blend of the 2001 feel with a more modern and grown-up one. The text looks great, and it's a nice MNOG quote too. All in all, great advert for the RPG, and I look forward to seeing more!

 

 

I was considering rejoining the game, but then I read Nuju Metru's guide and saw just how far this strayed from the true spirit of Bionicle.

 

Granted I completely threw that spirit out the window the first time I joined the game, but I have since stopped doing that, apologized for it, and taken a leave of absence.

 

The Great Spirit from the very beginning of the story's creation was a giant robot. That was hinted at several times and it was the story's big reveal. The BZPRPG took that away, along with the Bohrok.

 

And the guide specifically says to use humans as a guide for how strong your characters are, when we all know even a Matoran is slightly more durable and physically strong than a human, plus whatever their elemental trait is. (Heat resistance, greater strength, etc)

 

If it stuck to how the Bionicle universe and it's inhabitants really were described in the books, then I'd be more interested.

 

Thanks for hijacking this topic to have a little moan about something you don't like, with an argument that boils down to "it's different from canon so I don't like it".

 

Bohrok, Matoran physiology and a plot twist involving a giant robot are not the spirit of Bionicle. If you ask me, the spirit of Bionicle can be described in three words:

 

Unity, Duty, Destiny.

 

Unity. Friendship. Teamwork. The importance of sticking together when things get tough. The dangers of alienation. The value of compassion.

 

Duty. Morality. Standing up for what's good, and fighting what is evil. Selflessness. Sacrifice.

 

Destiny. Hope. Faith. A future.

 

THAT is the spirit of Bionicle, and I assure you that it is alive and well in the BZPRPG.

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Looks ok. I like the way the blood splatters/red specks mingles with the dark-greenish color of the mask to give it a rust-like look. I don't really like the color of the text though; it doesn't stand out enough, and I also feel like there's a bit too much red. The BZPRPG was dark, but it didn't feel dark in the sense that everybody got all their blood sputtered out in fountains simultaneously.

 

Also don't like how there's more black to the left side of the image than the right. The unbalance throws me off.

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BZPRPG Profiles 2013

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You'll have to pop over to the BZPRPG to find out. Might as well make a profile and jump in while you're there; it's a ton of fun!

My post was in response to this, Ghosthands. So...not off topic at all.

 

Spirit may have been the wrong word. Tone or feeling is probably better. It does not have to follow canon exactly, such a thing is impossible because in canon, the characters created by players obviously do not exist. Changes have to be made to make it an RPG. It is my view that the changes made were the wrong ones, and while that is clearly not the view of other players, I have every right to hold that view. Note that I never said the game was bad and should not be played. I said I don't like it and will not play it myself.

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You'll have to pop over to the BZPRPG to find out. Might as well make a profile and jump in while you're there; it's a ton of fun!

My post was in response to this, Ghosthands. So...not off topic at all.

 

 

I don't entirely agree...yes, you were responding to something Eyru said in his description, but I'd have thought it would be common courtesy to at least say something about the artwork as well. To use a reductio ad absurdum, if you posted a painting and mentioned that you'd painted it while in France, and I then made a post solely describing my dislike for France, I think it would seem rather out of place.

 

 

Spirit may have been the wrong word. Tone or feeling is probably better. It does not have to follow canon exactly, such a thing is impossible because in canon, the characters created by players obviously do not exist. Changes have to be made to make it an RPG. It is my view that the changes made were the wrong ones, and while that is clearly not the view of other players, I have every right to hold that view. Note that I never said the game was bad and should not be played. I said I don't like it and will not play it myself.

 

'Tone or feeling' is a much better way of putting it, and yes, the BZPRPG's tone is very different from canon.

 

I completely respect your right to disapprove of the changes made to create the BZPRPG. I disagree heavily with that opinion, but I recognise your right to hold it nonetheless.

 

My beef is not with you holding that opinion; it's with the way you stated it.

 

I said I don't like it and will not play it myself.

 

 

Yes, you did, but you said so in quite a lot of length and detail. The way you phrased it, specifically with lines like "strayed from the true spirit of Bionicle", made it seem polemical and grumpy. It didn't seem like a comment on a piece of art, it seemed like a deliberately public complaint from someone with an agenda.

 

I'm not saying that's what it was, but that's what it sounded like.

Edited by Twelfth Ghosthands
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Personally, I found the banner a little hard to read (though I was looking at this in a phone). The translucent yellow Hay over the red powder and black background didn't mesh to well in my opinion. The MNOG aesthetic smack dab in the middle of a blood pattern didn't really fit; maybe an infected Hau (like the one used in the promo images where it's half the island) would have worked better in this case. Red text on blood splatter was also really tricky to read; maybe making it a different color would have helped with the contrast.

 

I do like what you were trying to get at though, with the MNOG combined with more mature themes. Perhaps a more literal image would have conveyed the message better (like a ruined Kini-Nui or something).

 

Do you have any more BZIII banners?

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Figured I might as well respond to a couple comments:

 

Looks ok. I like the way the blood splatters/red specks mingles with the dark-greenish color of the mask to give it a rust-like look. I don't really like the color of the text though; it doesn't stand out enough, and I also feel like there's a bit too much red. The BZPRPG was dark, but it didn't feel dark in the sense that everybody got all their blood sputtered out in fountains simultaneously.

 

Also don't like how there's more black to the left side of the image than the right. The unbalance throws me off.

 

You're right - the red text doesn't stand out very well. That's sort of what I was going for, but I can definitely see how making it clearer might improve it. I can also appreciate how it looks like there's a lot of red: I definitely wasn't going for a blood-soaked image, so maybe I went a bit overboard. :P

 

 

Personally, I found the banner a little hard to read (though I was looking at this in a phone). The translucent yellow Hay over the red powder and black background didn't mesh to well in my opinion. The MNOG aesthetic smack dab in the middle of a blood pattern didn't really fit; maybe an infected Hau (like the one used in the promo images where it's half the island) would have worked better in this case. Red text on blood splatter was also really tricky to read; maybe making it a different color would have helped with the contrast.

I do like what you were trying to get at though, with the MNOG combined with more mature themes. Perhaps a more literal image would have conveyed the message better (like a ruined Kini-Nui or something).

Do you have any more BZIII banners?

 

Another comment about the readability of the text - I'll definitely have to work on that. I like the idea of infected Hau: that's a good idea! The reason I used the MNOG Hau was to try to evoke a nostalgic, old-school aesthetic, which would contrast with the overall darker theme of the banner. Maybe it's a little too contrasting.

 

love the idea of a ruined Kini-Nui - I'll definitely think about that. And I am working on a couple other banners - this is the only one I felt was "complete" enough to throw out there. 

 

Thanks for all your comments!

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@Twelfth Ghostands - UDD is great, but those ideals are pretty universal through all child-supported themes (i.e. Transformers, superheroes). Nothing unique to Bionicle.

 

@Artist - I think that the banner is fine, but the lack of capitalization kind of rattled me. Is the banner supposed to show something in the background?

Steam Name: Toa Hahli Mahri. Xbox Live Gamertag: Makuta. Minecraft Username: ThePoohster.

Wants: 2003 Jaller (from Jaller and Gukko), Exo-Toa, Turaga Nuju, Turaga Vakama, Shadow Kraata, Axonn, Brutaka, Vezon & Fenrakk, Nocturn, ORANGE FIKOU.

I got rid of my picture, are you happy?

 

 

 

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Definitely like the layout of the banner, but I feel that it needs more contrast. And this is probably a bit nit-picky, but the fact that the highlight on the hau doesn't match the gradient of the background throws me off. That's more of a stylistci choice than anything though.

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