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Sumiki

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Blog Entries posted by Sumiki

  1. Sumiki

    The Third Season

    By Sumiki,

    (TMD's ongoing series of epic blog entries are known as "Essays, Not Rants!" This might better be known as the first in a series of rambling, barely sensible blog entries known as "Rants, Not Essays!")
     
    The long-awaited Season Three of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is out, as of last week's two-part premiere and this week's Pinkie Pie-centric episode.
     
    To preface what I'm about to write, I pretty much dropped out of "brony-dom" during the latter half of Season Two. To be fair, I never was really a part of it to begin with. During the Great Downtime last year, MLP and its fandom served to fill the Internet void, as strange as that might sound. But even then, I was rarely much more than a passive observer. I found the show to be lighthearted and legitimately enjoyable, but certain portions of brony-dom took it a little too far. My solitary contribution to the fandom took the form of an absurd one-shot fanfic where Pinkie Pie discovers pizza.
     
    Since my "brony drop-out," I've not kept up with the release of episodes from official sources or popular fan sites, as was my norm during the last season. In fact, I credit Bambi's blog for pretty much all the advance knowledge I have before episodes of this season air.
     
    So last week, I sat down and watched the two-part Season Three premiere.
     
    I didn't very much care for it.
     
    Here's five reasons why.
     
    1) The villain. King Sombra had very little backstory, and what we knew was utterly generic and/or terribly lacking.
    2) The setting. A Crystal Empire sounds really cool (and some of the architecture and animation were neat), but it flopped horribly - again, because we were given very little information about it.
    3) The plot devices. Every single season premiere has suffered the same issue. Season One's was cool because it was the first (though many agree that it's weak), and Season Two had Discord and some novel concepts. But this time around, everything felt rehashed.
    4) The timeline. They're all 1,000 years: Luna was in the moon for 1,000 years, Discord was stone for 1,000 years, and this Crystal Empire was gone for, you guessed it, 1,000 years.
    5) The Elements of Harmony. Where were they? Surely they could have wiped Sombra out without the rigamarole of the episodes.
     
    Now, I totally understand the need for keeping the plot simple. It is, first and foremost, a show for young girls, and the aspects which draw bronies to the show rarely include the plots. But with Seasons One and Two, the villains which the Mane Six had to battle in the opening two-parters were awesome, and what they did (or tried to do) actually had some implications on the lives of the Mane Six, on Ponyville, and Equestria as a whole. There was fridge horror, logic, and brilliance. With the Crystal Empire, those implications weren't there, and thus the plot carried very little weight.
     
    After watching it, I was disappointed, though not profoundly. I didn't see things to outright hate about it, just a lot of things that bugged me. Its sheer predictability made it boring.
     
    (Side note alert: this was the first season premiere where Princess Celestia was actually able to personally intervene against the forces of evil, but chose not to. Heck, they wrote a logical reason for this into the Return of Harmony script. Trollestia indeed.)
     
    Moving on. The first "regular" episode of Season Three was Too Many Pinkie Pies, wherein Pinkie Pie clones herself and madness ensues. I'm not going to go into specifics, as some may not have seen the episode yet, but I can give some thoughts on it.
     
    Personally, I'm mixed. I had some issues with the resolution (it seemed strange, too forced, and unnatural), but my main qualm resides in the characters. The characters seemed too much like themselves, as if they were caricaturing their personalities. I don't know if this is brony fanservice or not, but I don't like it.
     
    Here's an example.
     
    Paula Deen, for those who don't know, is a chef and TV personality who got famous for her Southern hospitality, exuberance, and willingness to put too much butter into any recipe she made on the air. Her personality was infectious, and my mom enjoyed watching her show - not for the recipes, but just to see what she'd do and say. (A stick of butter is colloquially known in our house as a "Deen.")
     
    As recently as a few years ago, Deen began to change. She no longer seemed like a real person; she seemed to be acting like an echo of the person she used to be. This, according to my mom, made her show not unenjoyable, per se, but significantly less enjoyable than it used to be.
     
    If Too Many Pinkie Pies is any indication, My Little Pony is beginning to head down the same path.
     
    Is it because the fandom has impact? I don't know. Like I said, I kind of dropped out a while back, and I have little interest in returning. A couple of episodes is a small sampling size, but from what I know of the upcoming episodes, this might very well continue. For example the Great and Powerful Trixie - a fan-favorite (for reasons I can't fathom) - will reappear in an upcoming episode. Considering that brony-dom has taken an absurd liking to Trixie, I suspect her return will have fan-service. If it does, I'll consider my earlier theory as being correct.
     
    This isn't saying that I'm no longer a fan of the show. For as long as it is on, I'll still watch the episodes. But if bronies really do have an impact on the show and its characters as much as has been indicated by recent episodes, Friendship is Magic may have prematurely jumped the shark.
     
    NEXT TIME: SUMIKI YELLS AT A PICKLE JAR FOR BEING UNOPENABLE.
  2. Sumiki
    Recently, there have been many blog entries and much speculation on the end of Bionicle in 2010. There have been many "sources" cited: namely, European fansites.
     
    I, for one, don't trust it. Here's why:

    It's easy to misconstrue anything foreign. People who don't know English well, plus horrific translation software, is not much "proof" in my book. In many cases, no quotes are provided. Bionicle's sales are at an all-time high. Why would they cancel a line that lines their pockets with millions every year, while the CEOs are sitting at their desks, twiddling their thumbs? If it was to be canceled, people at LEGO would have known by 2009. Why would they sign a multi-year deal for multiple movies featuring the storylines of sequential years if there would be no 2011? There are more, but those are my main three arguments. Feel free to argue against them.
  3. Sumiki

    "Ċool Dude"

    By Sumiki,

    You know, I have noticed an issue in the forum software, and it has to do with the word filter. Don't get me wrong, I like the filter, it keeps bad, bad things from coming to BZP, but the word that changes to "Cool Dude" in the filter simply has got to go. I have four reasons why:
     
    1. It's designed so people don't get their feelings hurt by having someone call them that, but in reality, it's extremely rare for a person to be called that.
    2. There are plenty of other synonyms that are just as bad: "Moron", "Nincompoop", "Nitwit", "Dunderwhelp", "Gongoozler", "Micrencephalus", or "Gink".
    3. Everyone knows that "Cool Dude" is just the filter. (Comparison: a cool dude [non-filter] vs. an cool dude [filter].)
    4. Every BZP member knows what it means and have heard it in the real world before, undoubtedly countless times.
     
    In my opinion, and based on the reasons above, I suggest that the administration remove the "cool dude" filter, and punish members when they insult other members or set designers, and not when they use that word to describe themselves. What's so bad about saying that you're a "cool dude"?
     
    -=< >=-
  4. Sumiki
    My blog is becoming less active again ... I blame it on the end of the semester.
     
    This picture was taken on June 11th, 2012 in Louisville, Kentucky, at the Louisville Slugger museum. The lifelike statue of Ken Griffey Jr., it seems, was too much for my dad to resist pinching.
     
    And before you ask, yes, this is probably the weirdest thing he's ever done.
     

    "Talk about being a pinch hitter."


  7. Sumiki

    Name Change Poll!

    By Sumiki,

    It's that time again …
     
    1. Sumiki - 5
    2. Smuffin Nudpucker - 1
    3. Mad Luigi Possum
    4. Derelict Spoon - 1
    5. Smuffin Slapper - 2
    5. Frisky Biscuit - 4
     
    Vote early, as this will probably be closed within the next 24 hours.
  8. Sumiki
    So, let's talk a little history here. Let's go back to 1977, a big year for many reasons. Apple becomes a company, Miami gets snow, Uranus's rings are discovered, MLB expands to Toronto and Seattle, Star Wars premieres, Elvis dies, smallpox is eradi-
     
    Wait, hold on. Back up. Star Wars premiered. That was the important thing - some would argue that it has impacted the world more so than anything else that has its roots in 1977. (Apple, of course, would like a word with you if you agree.)
     
    Star Wars - or, as it's known now, A New Hope - was the highest grossing film for the time, and its cultural impact was astounding. By the time the original trilogy was completed in 1983, the Star Wars franchise was a remarkable success. For a long time, it just sat there, continuing to pile up cash for George Lucas. Its fans thought of it very highly, and praised the series for pretty much all of its aspects.
     
    At the same time, something was missing, though only Lucas saw it. His original vision for Star Wars involved a total of nine or even twelve films. This was repeated often enough by Lucas, and by those close to him, to be taken as credible, and now, with Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm, will become a reality. Like any other story, as it evolved, Lucas's vision changed. Instead of being the story of a group of people, Star Wars became about Anakin Skywalker: his powers, his fall, and his eventual redemption. Lucas talked of a nine-film arc as late as 1994, but it soon became clear that the "original" version of the sequel trilogy, as he envisioned it, wouldn't come to pass.
     
    Soon enough, 1997 came along, and with it Lucas began to enrage his fans with the release of the "Special Edition" versions of the original trilogy. I've seen the changes myself, and not being a complete Star Wars nut, I can't bring myself to see what the big deal is about Han or Greedo shooting first. (I can't ever remember which one was the original, let alone why the fans got their jimmies collectively rustled.) The rest of the changes are so minor as to be unnoticeable to all but the most dedicated fans. And I'll be honest here - some of the changes improved the overall look and feel of the films, as well as correcting some errors left over from the original versions. For example, the Special Edition version of the Rebel-Empire battle in A New Hope is much cleaner and smoother than the original, and the CGI works.
     
    Two years after this debacle, The Phantom Menace debuts.
     
    And the fans, for the most part, think it sucks.
     
    But ... why? The Phantom Menace isn't the best movie ever made, but there was an undue amount of hate on it. Fans pointed to many things: the de-mystifying of the Force (in an undramatic scene, no less), an awesome villain called Darth Maul that got no characterization and little screen time save for the single best swordfighting scene in all of film. But not even the fight could escape criticism; fans viewed it as unrealistic.
     
    (Of course, "unrealistic" is a silly word to throw around when you have a universe full of laser swords, telekinesis, space stations the size of moons that can obliterate planets, and an army of overweight teddy bears taking down a fully trained - and fully armored! - army. I'm just sayin'.)
     
    Then came Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith, and they got ripped for pretty much the same reason: Hayden Christensen.
     
    Ever since 2005, there have been wars over the Internet, pitting the originals against the prequels. Mainly, it's the folks who outright hate the prequels with every atom of their being versus the folks who say "well gee, the prequels weren't as good as the originals but they weren't that bad."
     
    I agree with the latter, as does TMD.
     
    In thinking about the subject, I slogged through pro- and anti-prequel articles, videos, and comments from all over the Internet. What I tried to do with all this was to boil it down to something simple, a statement about why the prequels are so commonly despised.
     
    Here goes:
     
    The Star Wars prequel trilogy is disliked amongst fans because it disrupted everything about what they knew about the universe they had come to love.
     
    Between the release of Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, fans created an expanded canon that built off of where Jedi left off. They left what happened before Episode IV alone. The mystery was a part of the canon. The Force was magical; Yoda didn't mention anything about midichlorians when he was teaching Luke on Dagobah.
     
    Now, switching gears (though not really). BIONICLE.
     
    2001 to 2003 was the "original trilogy" of BIONICLE. There was mystery about the universe, the bad guy was bad for who knows what reasons, but we didn't care because he was awesome.
     
    Sound familiar?
     
    Yeah, I thought so.
     
    This is where it gets interesting, and where there are a lot of BIONICLE-Star Wars parallels. The "prequels" of BIONICLE were 2004 and 2005, when we learned that Vakama was once a depressed and possibly emo Toa of Fire who led a motley crew to the extremes of Metru Nui to find disks and destroy an oversized weed.
     
    Huh. Maybe we should hire the Toa Metru to clean out the Kudzu that clutters up quite a bit of North Carolina.
     
    Most of the story parallels would be silly to make, because while they have tropes in common, for the most part they're completely different stories. (Well, aside from Teridax and Emperor Palpatine: same guy, different universe.) What I'm interested in here is the fan reaction.
     
    2004 was greeted by the BIONICLE community as being fresh, exciting, and so wonderfully new ... the sets had new molds, new colors, and more articulation than you could shake your blocky bley fist at.
     
    As the years have dragged on, though, the distaste for '04 (and '05, to a greater extent) has grown. '01-'03 were nostalgic, simple in some ways, complex in others. The entire story was like a riddle wrapped around an enigma fried up in a conundrum with Chinese mustard dipping sauce, and there were no complaints about this, just as there were none when old Ben Kenobi taught Luke about the ways of the Force. No one asked "why are there masks on this island and why did the Toa get there?" just as no one asked "why can that wrinkled muppet lift a starfighter?"
     
    You can see where I'm going from here. George Lucas and Greg Farshtey both have almost singlehandedly developed entire universes. In each case, their stories start out in the middle of things, and when the backstory is revealed, the fans have mixed reactions, at best.
     
    In each case, it is due to the fact that the fan bases generate a collective idea about what came before. Each fan base has a different take - BIONICLE's is one of theorizing and speculation, while Star Wars's was one of apathy towards what begot their beloved movies. Demystification doesn't make the originals less enjoyable, but no Star Wars fan can watch any of the original movies without the voice of Jar Jar Binks taking a cheese grater to their cerebral cortex.
     
    In each case, the "magic of the original" was lost. Metru Nui felt different from Mata Nui for the same reasons as the prequels felt different from the originals. They both couldn't have been more different from their predecessors.
     
    In each case, the main architect of the series was vilified for changing too much original material. Greg got serious heat for revealing Makuta's real name, retconning the '01-'02 flirting, etc. This is not much different from Lucas tinkering with the movies, or informing us that midichlorians exist.
     
    And in each case, the ones who criticize the harshest are often the ones who are most passionate about what they criticize.
     
    NEXT TIME: SUMIKI TESTS POSITIVE FOR MIDICHLORIANS AND GETS A PHONE CALL FROM LANCE ARMSTRONG.
  9. Sumiki

    Franchise Futures

    By Sumiki,

    Let's face it: franchises rule the box office. Let's take a look at some of the big franchises, both current and anticipated, and get a good sense of where this is all headed. There's more peril than promise, I fear.
     
    First, let's look at Harry Potter, the quintessential film franchise. One movie per book, with seven b—no, wait, they split Deathly Hallows to keep the die-hards happy, so eight movies.
     
    Still, that's pretty good, right? They didn't split Goblet of Fire like they were going to; we could have had nine or ten movies.
     
    Yes, and now executives are kicking themselves silly not to cash in when they had even more opportunity. We're gonna start having to call this thing The Franchise That Lived, because they're turning the companion volume Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them into a trilogy. If they keep at this record for all of Rowling's remaining Potterverse material, increasing the number of installments like an unhinged Fibonacci series, we won't be done with these films for a while yet.
     
    Moving on to a similar, yet more hotly anticipated series: Star Wars. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone more excited about The Force Awakens than I am, but I'm beginning to have unsettling feelings about where the franchise is headed. We all know that the sequels will make tons of money regardless of their quality (although at this rate I would find it unlikely that J.J. & Co. would find a way to make them worse than the prequels).
     
    The Force Awakens and the two subsequent installments in the sequel trilogy will happen and I'm not concerned about them, Rogue One looks promising, and heck, I even have a feeling that the two other spin-off films will be at least halfway decent. But Disney put big money into Lucasfilm and I have a feeling that they're going to want to make more than just six films. The best way to handle the franchise is to have the stars of the sequel trilogy do what the original trilogy actors are doing in the sequels, but I have a feeling that Disney's not going to want to wait that long, which means a sequel trilogy to the sequel trilogy and/or further populating the universe with more spin-offs, and keeping up quality there is going to be extremely difficult.
     
    A similar case is that of the Lord of the Rings movies. Peter Jackson's acclaimed interpretations of the Tolkien classics, nominated for basically every award possible and winning most of them, remain widely acclaimed. When they announced the Hobbit films, I thought of it as a logical move ... until they went from two movies to three. It took three movies to tell three books, and all of the sudden you've got to fill up two hours with a third of the material? Of course you're going to have pacing issues—ones that even the greatest filmmakers would be hard-pressed to solve. I give it five years before a tetralogy based on The Silmarillion is announced.
     
    Okay, I think I get it. But these series are either finishing up or are yet to start and what you're suggesting hasn't actually happened yet.
     
    Well, yeah, none of these are currently disasters, and I have reason to believe that studios will continue to make incredible amounts of money by doing nothing but simply funding these franchises. The success or failure of these series will be less at the box office and more in the minds of those who see them. I mean, no one likes Michael Bay's Transformers series, but they have lots of explosions and continue to make money even if the franchise is a train wreck—or, given that it's Michael Bay, a triple train wreck where each train was carrying a third of the US nuclear arsenal.
     
    I have but two more examples of current large franchises, so bear with me.
     
    The Fast and Furious franchise has seven installments, with the seventh intended to launch a trilogy. After the death of Paul Walker, the filmmakers decided to make #7 a real fitting end to the series and a touching send-off to Walker, which would have been a nice thing to do ... except for the fact that they're still making #8 and #9 and they more or less messed themselves up by changing #7. This is actually real problem for the Fast and Furious team, and I have a feeling that they'll end up starting a trilogy on #8 and having it run through to #10. Just getting #8 to seem plausible and not a tacky money grab is going to be an uphill battle.
     
    Finally, the big daddy of current franchises: the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It grows bigger by the day, and Marvel's original plan outlined three phases of epic proportions, not to mention Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Daredevil, and future shows. This is the biggest universe in terms of sheer scale and it has a ton of moving parts without much in common between films—well, except for the ever-present Stan Lee cameo. (Even the actors change; Edward Norton was the Hulk in a film people seem not to remember.)
     
    Marvel has the best chance of pulling off something like this, but it wouldn't take much for the MCU to become a self-contradictory jumble. Acclaimed writer and disruptive pseudo-feminist Joss Whedon's comments about what he did and did not consider to be a part of the MCU may be as much of an indictment against the MCU's current size and scope as it is against Whedon himself.
     
    So you're saying that there's a critical mass for a franchise?
     
    Yes, with the caveat that they all exist in the same universe. James Bond is a very long series, but only recently have the films been definitively set in the same universe (although I committed quite a long entry to this blog awhile back postulating that James Bond is a Time Lord). Even then, it's doubtful that the Casino Royale/Quantum of Solace universe is the same as the Skyfall/Spectre universe. Bond's got a while to go before he runs out, and the nature of the role means that the series will reboot again when Daniel Craig makes his exit.
     
    But TV shows don't have this issue—look at Doctor Who.
     
    ... a show that has decidedly gone downhill under Moffat.
     
    Still, TV shows are different from movies in many fashions. Shows usually translate well into films (see Mission: Impossible), but I can't think of any adaptations that successfully went in the opposite direction.
     
    Shows have a slower pace, more hours to tell a story, and deeper characterization. We have the opportunity to get to know Andy Dwyer that we couldn't possibly get for Star-Lord, and that's just an example from one actor. There's a smaller group of people who make a show from season to season, and they can plan what they want, who they want, and when they want things to happen.
     
    Movies also must feel complete, and continuing to find compelling ways to tell stories with characters, both familiar and unfamiliar, while simultaneously keeping in mind that each installment must come to its own conclusion (to ensure that the films within a franchise are enjoyable by themselves), will eventually cause problems.
     
    In short, I don't think that all of these franchises I mentioned are necessarily doomed to failure, and certainly I doubt that any of their respective installments will flop at the box office. With each successive film, however, you run the risk of painting yourself into a corner by being forced to tell new and compelling stories while maintaining self-consistency in everything from aesthetic to characterization. It's an elaborate dance, and one misstep means fandom chaos.
  10. Sumiki

    Things haven't been good

    By Sumiki,

    My grandmother has been recovering slowly but steadily since her mid-October surgery. There have been a number of setbacks, including bronchitis, but none more disheartening than the thought of getting another surgery and going through the process again.
     
    Unfortunately, the spacers they inserted into her back have moved and have temporarily paralyzed one of her feet. A second surgery is now a must if she wants to walk normally again, and it has to be done immediately before the bone heals around the spacer.
     
    The scary thing isn't the pain she'll go through—the nerves, which caused much of the post-surgery pain, have all but completely healed in every place but that foot—it's the time she's under anesthesia, which was the root cause of the problems in her first surgery.
     
    We all thought the process would be over by Thanksgiving, and yet there's still no end in sight. Your thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated.
     
    I hope that my activity can return to a more normal basis by January. Mindless diversions from constantly worrying have done me some psychological good, and in that vein, you can expect the sequel to The Adventures of Sumiki's Dad some time soon.
  12. Sumiki
    "I'm going to go in and make donuts tomorrow."
     
    "Send my greetings to the Queen of The Gambia. Furthermore, I own a stapler."
     
    "We have invested in a raisin farm."
     
    "Remember, the celery retractors will be there in the morning."
  18. Sumiki

    Into the Dalek

    By Sumiki,

    That's probably the first (non-50th-special) episode of Doctor Who that I've legitimately enjoyed since Asylum of the Daleks.
     
    The new intro is horrid, though. The music sounds like a compressed tinny mid-90s MIDI bandbox and no one can tell me otherwise. Murray Gold still does good incidental music but good grief get Danny Elfman on the intro.
  19. Sumiki

    BrickFair Nomination

    By Sumiki,

    There have been way too many crazy awesome things that have transpired over the past three days, and these things will be chronicled in a blog entry in due time, but I just wanted to say that one of my MOCs - the Heavily Armored Wasp - was nominated for Best BIONICLE!
     
    My chances of actually winning, however, are somewhat less than slim: I'm up against DeeVee's Vayland Dragon III, Steve the Squid's wearable Bane mask, and Makaru's Kahu, so I'm basically just thrilled that I got nominated and have accepted the fact that I'm going nowhere beyond that.
     
    Of course, many, many thanks to the always-awesome Nukaya for nominating the Wasp for consideration.
  23. Sumiki

    Entry Locked

    By Sumiki,

    Second in my series of Amazing BrickFair GIFs, Takuma Nuva punches Zatth upside the head. This was made exclusively for this image:
     

    (496 KB)
     
    Large version here (1.6 MB)
     
    (and no this is not just because tak complained)
     
    (but it had something to do with it)
  24. Sumiki

    The New Word Filter

    By Sumiki,

    I sincerely congratulate -Windrider- and the rest of the gang for knocking out something that was long overdue. (Come to think of it, Takuma is probably much happier than I am.)
     
    Over the years, I've heard many people discuss changing the word filter. Heck, I knew people were kicking around that idea when I joined nearly eight years ago; Taka-Tahu-Nuva mentioned to me that discussions were going on back when I sent him updates to the BBCC History topic. It was full of what were, objectively, bizarre and silly holdovers from the past, as vestigial as the policies that have been culled from the rules in recent months. "Jerk" and "idiot" were two that always really bugged me, because they're pretty tame words. Filtering the former out only made it look worse and the "cool dude" of the latter lived in infamy.
     
    I'm mainly going to talk about the latter filter, because I hated that thing.
     
    However, there are a lot of folks on the member rolls, active and inactive, that liked it. Its actual purpose was to prevent members from spamming forums by calling each other idiots, and it long outlived that function. It was a fad. I never understood the explanation of keeping it around because its reason for implementation might once again rear its noobish head, and I certainly didn't understand excusing its continued presence by claiming that it was somehow an integral part of BZPower.
     
    I certainly understand the viewpoint that those folks come from. "Cool dude" is as much of BZPower history as the Secret Stomach Message. Yet BZPower has survived without connor's infamous message, as it was deleted along with the rest of the Archives. Yet it is preserved in a great many ways: through screenshots, the Wayback Machine, and - perhaps most importantly - through BZPower's culture.
     
    We no longer need to filter the word idiot, because "cool dude" is part of our culture. It's part of BZP lore and tradition. Call me crazy for saying that a web site has a culture, but how else can you explain the memes that have perpetuated themselves on BZP and could not make the jump elsewhere? I only need to point to the Secret Stomach Message as an example of this.
     
    A web site is more than a single filter that is as long and unfunny as a Family Guy episode. Keeping it around to be a part of BZP tradition - when it will continue in perpetuity nestled inside its bubble of bizarre infamy, regardless of whether or not it's in the filter - was, I believe, harmful to BZPower's perception for a couple of reasons.
     
    The first was amongst prospective members. While I doubt anyone has ever not joined (or left) BZPower because of something as small as the word "idiot," filtering it was one of the things that presented BZPower as a site still rooted in the past.
     
    The second was in stories. Be they in the Library, OTC, the Blogs, or anywhere else, words like "idiot" and "jerk" - words many people use, and useful words when it comes to both fiction and in recounting personal stories - were avoided. The only time I've ever seen the word used in the Library before now was in 2006, when bonesiii inserted some carefully placed dots to evade said filter. (I remember reporting it, but I don't believe that anything came of it.)
     
    Ever since then, I've seen a number of instances where flow and realism would be improved by the addition of words such as those, and now writers are free to use them.
     
    Third, "idiotic" has never been (and hopefully never will be) filtered.
     
    Finally (and I haven't seen this point raised anywhere else), we turn to the Comics forum, which I have patrolled since my promotion. Many times, comic makers would make innocent comics which would happen to have a filtered word in them. I always regretting having to report them because I felt like we were handling non-issues.
     
    Comparing those filters to the "first to post" filter is tricky. I haven't seen anyone say "first to post" in a while. Its presence, which I miss only vaguely, was not as obtrusive and it got back at members whose posts would otherwise be annoying. It was a precision strike, unlike the cool dude cluster-bomb.
     
    I will say it before and I'm sure I'll have to say it again in the future: BZPower is resistant to change. Its longstanding members, by and large, have grown so attached to aspects of the site that necessary and overdue changes - such as updating the front page - meet with some manner of resistance every time an issue of its ilk arises. I can count myself in amongst those members; my eight-year BZ-versary is next month and Senior Staffhood is six months out. But I've seen BZP in the old days and the new, and I've had to come to terms with my conclusions.
     
    Fundamentally, what is nostalgic to members of a certain age is the exact opposite of what will sustain BZPower in the coming years, especially if the rumors of BIONICLE's return turn out to be true.
     
    I applaud and urge on the implementations of reform that BZPower still needs. Its overdue makeover may be long in its gestation and yet longer until completion, but things are happening.
     
    And that makes me happy to be a part of this community.
  25. Sumiki

    More On The Project

    By Sumiki,

    Who Wants to be a Millionaire Premier Member? 
    I'm sure many of you have heard of the US game show "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire", where contestants answer multiple-choice questions to see if they can win a million dollars. Well, this is the Bionicle version, and the top prize? A MILLION WIDGETS, which so happens to be equal to the exact value of Lifetime Premier Membership.
     
    I will be the host of the show, recorded via Skype, a free service. People who have sent me PMs will be sent a 40-question quiz, when they are online. As it will be a combination of how fast you go and how accurate you are, you probably won't benefit from looking up the answers online.
     
    Because it's an online thing, the show's format will be slightly changed, and as such, YOU MUST READ THIS EVEN IF YOU HAVE SEEN THE SHOW. Here are the full rules:

    I will ask 15 multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty at the same time as I post them on Skype's chat service for the contestant. These multiple-choice questions will be about 50% Bionicle and 25% LEGO and BZPower. The questions shall have Widget values, abbreviated W.The complete order of Widget values is as follows: 100 200 300 500 1,000 2,000 4,000 8,000 16,000 32,000 64,000 125,000 250,000 500,000 1 million The bolded Widget values are the values that a contestant, if he/she gets an answer wrong afterwards, will win. For example:If a contestant gets one of the 2,000 - 32,000W questions wrong, he/she will end up with the 1,000W prize, which is 6-month PMship. If a contestant gets one of the 64,000 - 1,000,000W questions wrong, he/she will end up with the 32,000W prize, which is 1-year PMship. If a contestant gets one of the 100 - 1,000W questions wrong, he/she will end up with no prize. Contestants will be timed in order to prevent the use of online access to obtain the correct answers. I reserve the right to disqualify anyone from the show if I have conclusive evidence that they are cheating in such a way. The amount of time on the clock will vary the more a contestant gets questions right:From 100W to 1,000W, the time will be 15 seconds. From 2,000W - 32,000W, the time will be 30 seconds. From 64,000W to 500,000W, the time will be 45 seconds. For the 1,000,000W question, the time limit will be the sum of all the player's unused time from the previous questions plus 30 seconds. Contestants have three lifelines to use on the show. They can only be used once per game. They are as follows:50/50: Two incorrect answers are eliminated, leaving one correct and one incorrect one. The clock is momentarily paused as the two are eliminated. Phone the Expert:: Our expert, which will change depending on their schedules, will be another BZP member. This member will be put in your place for the exact same amount of time as you had for that question, except for the 1,000,000W question, where it will be replaced by the "Switch the Question" lifeline if you have not used "Phone the Expert" yet. Double Dip:: The clock is paused and the contestant gives an answer. If that answer is incorrect, the clock starts back up again, and the contestant may not use another lifeline for that question. Switch the Question (1,000,000W only): If the contestant finds the 1,000,000W question too difficult, he/she can use this lifeline. If someone says an answer out loud, I will ask "Final Answer?" A contestant may also state their answer, followed by "Final Answer", so it saves my breath . Once a player has committed to a final answer, he/she may not change it.
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