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bonesiii

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  1. bonesiii
    Okay, this is partly just an excuse to have a blog entry. But also I wanted to put my answer to the above question here in full. Gravitan asked me about this in my profile comments but the answer looks way too convoluted split up into 400 char segments.
     
    But in all seriousness, this is a topic many have brought up, and it is VERY relevant to Bionicle -- the answer is one of the core lessons that Bionicle teaches. On a Bionicle fansite, it's pretty important that we recognize that.
     
    So here we go:
     
    Are "Good" and "Evil" just points of view?
     
     
    QUOTE(Gravitan)
    Can it truly be said that good and evil are not points of view?
    A (very long ) post of yours caused me to wonder about this.
     
     
    My answer:
     
    Gravitan -- it is possible to "redefine" good and evil so that those words are subjective. It's true that some people and cultures have used the words to just mean "my side" and "my enemy's side".
     
    However: the words themselves also mean some real things that have clear differences, and those differences are NOT just points of view.
     
    "Good" people are more self-LESS than selfish, wanting the good of others above themselves. Nobody's perfect at this of course, but that's the idea. Good guys don't backstab each other (or rather, when they do, they aren't being good).
     
    Evil is self-ISH. Evil beings want everything for themselves above others. They use minions and allies when they need them, but as soon as they don't, they will backstab the heck out of 'em. Again, most of us have aspects of this in us, which is why humans aren't truly one or the other. But it's, again, the basic idea of evil.
     
    The above differences simply are not arguable. What's arguable is whether the uses of the word "evil" and "good" are always used accurately. Often they aren't. But that doesn't change the fact that good and evil mean real things.
     
    So to say "good and evil are just points of view" is simply false, because it blindly rules out the correct uses of the words.
     
    In technical logical terms, t's an Equivocation Fallacy -- it's based on noticing that sometimes good and evil ARE used as points of view, but then equivocating those meanings of "good and evil" for the absolute ones, and trying to say "this proves ALL meanings of good and evil are points of view." It is logically invalid, so it is impossible for it to be true.
     
    What about in Bionicle?
     
    Bionicle has shown this time and time again, with it being a major theme of 2004, 2005, and 2006 (especially 2006). It's also been strongly implied from the beginning, from the moment the legends told us of a "brother" of the Great Spirit, Makuta, who betrayed Mata Nui and cast him into a slumber (one that we now know is killing Mata Nui) and tried to conquer for his own selfish gain.
     
    Bionicle fans really should recognize this basic truth -- evil is selfish. Good is not.
     
    However, it is muddled in real life, and thus it makes sense that not ALL "good" and "evil" are really good and evil. The Bohrok were marketed as the "bad guys" and the Toa fought them. But the Toa found out that the Bohrok weren't actually evil. Just not designed to handle people living where they are commanded to Clean It All with capital letters.
     
    There's an important lesson there too -- the Bohrok weren't doing that for selfish reasons, but as part of what's needed to wake up Mata Nui, thus for the good of all. So it's important to try not to use the words "good" and "evil" just to mean "my side and theirs". Using those words as points of view is wrong.
     
    So pointing it out when it happens is certainly a good thing, and it would be just as wrong to sit here and tell you that "good" is always truly good. Not true.
     
     
    In different ways, all of Bionicle since has been reliving those two themes in different ways.
     
    The Piraka were the pinnacle of a clear example of how evil stabs itself in the back. The Piraka stand for betrayal with a grin.
     
    The Toa Nuva facing off against the Matoran Resistance in the books was another example like the Bohrok, as was the Piraka's pretending to be Toa. The Matoran were fooled into confusing truly evil beings, Piraka, for good guys (called "naivete"), and once they realized this, they were fooled into the opposite, confusing good guys for evil beings (called "cynicism").
     
     
    This year, what we're exploring is a different form of evil. One that is (for now) united in purpose, and not backstabbing left and right. It could be mistaken that the Barraki are not as evil as the Piraka. But the Barraki are willing to kill on a whim for their own selfish desires -- they are only on each others' side because it is necessary at the moment, and they're a heck of a lot smarter than the Piraka. They know they have to work together to achieve their selfish goals. They know from experience -- it was how they were originally designed to work back when they were good guys (unlike the Piraka).
     
    But watch how they act towards each other. Do they seem like best friends? Carapar hates Takadox, Pridak threatens to rip arms off to get his way, Ehlek zaps whoever annoys him... Etc. Total betrayal isn't all that makes you evil. It's the little things too -- you know the old saying "if you can't be trusted with the little things, you can't be trusted with the big things either."
     
    Compare it to how the Toa act towards each other. They tease jokingly, they encourage each other -- but sometimes they also mess up, insulting each other, and in Vakama's case betraying each other. But what did that make Vakama? A bad guy. It's clear that the Toa do what they do self-LESS-ly, even to the point of risking their very lives (or losing them) to protect the Matoran and each other (Case in point, Lhikan, though he was a Turaga, heh).
     
    Bionicle clearly shows that good and evil are NOT merely points of view.
     
    Not only that, but it shows that good is a much better way of life. When neither side has really won, it's muddled and unclear: Which is better? Evil often uses the mistakes of good guys to say "See? See? They're just as bad -- try life our way!"
     
    But when you see one side or the other winning, you see the truth.
     
    When the Piraka take over Voya Nui, Matoran die left and right because the Piraka really don't care. There is pain and horror and anything but peace.
     
    When the Toa Mata defeated Makuta, the Bahrag, when they defeated the Rahkshi, when there were, for the moment, no selfish enemies of power making life miserable, the Matoran had peace. They enjoyed their jobs because they did them willingly for the benefit of others, they were in practically no danger of death or pain, they could see right before their eyes the fact that selflessness produces better results, ironically, for the "self". For each "self."
     
     
    Back to the Basics
     
    Think about it: If two beings work together to ensure they each have the best life possible, they are both happy and well off. By itself, makes a lousy story, but a great life.
     
    If one being insults, steals from, attacks, wars against, works against the other being, both beings are filled with negatives. The one with anger and hatred, which inhrerently torment the very person who uses them, and the other with pain and suffering, even if he cowers and obeys order. If he fights back in hatred, both simply have equal amounts of hatred and pain, and both are miserable.
     
    Even if one kills the other and has no conscience left at all, heshe has nobody to help them out with chores, enjoy sports with, etc. If the other fights back, not in hatred, but from good motives, he won't suffer the torment of hatred, and won't suffer as much pain if he stops the evil one from attacking, but will always be scarred at least a little because he too has no companion to enjoy life with.
     
     
     
    In a nutshell, that is all stories. Just the existence of "conflict stories" should be enough to prove to us that good and evil mean different things -- without conflict there is no story, but without the possibility of good and peace, there also is no story.
     
     
     
    Conclusion
     
    The answer is yes and no. Sometimes good and evil are points of view, but there are absolute definitions of both words, based on selflessness and selfishness. Good is self-LESS, looking out for others above the self. Evil is self-ISH, looking out for the self above others. To confuse the former definitions of these words with the latter is an equivocation fallacy, which is invalid and logically impossible.
     
    True good and evil mean very real things that are opposite and mutually exclusive: evil is deceptive, seeming to bring benefit for the self but ruining the self in the process, while good truly brings benefit not just for others, but also for the self as a bonus.
  2. bonesiii
    Blog Question: Sidebar Content Block length. What do you guys think? Is it best if I cut out a lot of that content so that there are barely any sidebars at all and it's kept really short? Or do you guys like having lotsa stuff on the sidebars to read? I'm torn between cutting out all the quotes and the complaint topic archive, putting them in blog entries and keeping the images only except for the lists of award winners stuff -- or between cutting out just a few things to tidy up.

    Dreaded Real Life: One class down, two to go! I had to pull my first ever true all-nighter to finish that History Methods essay Sunday night. Wasn't as great of quality as I used to be able to produce sans a job, and I'm basically resigned to the fact that I'll only barely pass that class and my GPA will go down to a 3.6 something as opposed to the current 3.7. But whatever. I don't care anymore. I just want college to be over.

    Note: I did that totally without any performance enhancing drugs. That is, coffee. Once one of you suggested drinking coffee. I never got around to posting my rant.

    Coffee is a performance-enhancing drug and should be illegal. In sports, everybody whines when someone takes steriods to get an edge over the competition. Yet in our workplaces, we allow the equivalent to run rampant. This is wrong. Coffee is a drug that manipulates your body and can cause addiction.

    I say no. I refuse to use any drugs to "get an edge." Other than cheese. But it's not really a drug. And it doesn't count as an addiction because, ya know, it's cheese. Anyways, I refuse to accept the premise that if I cannot stay awake to complete an overloaded to-do-list, I should use drugs to overcome my exhaustion.

    NO! Guess what would happen if everybody drank coffee? Professors would assign ridiculously more amounts of homework because "you can handle it now." EVIL! It's already happening, and you know it's been happening for years in the workplace. Imagine if all coffee suddenly was recalled for e-coli or whatever. Our economy would come to a crashing halt. You know it. Break free!

    JUST. SAY. NO.

    Wean yourself from the addiction! Seek help! Be free to be you, not a Coffeeholic!

    *ahem*

    As I was saying. Two more days, and then the entire planet is going to hear echoes from my shout of joy. I am going to be free of the shackles of evil homework FOREVER! MUAHAHAHAHA!
  3. bonesiii

    Dissecting Nostalgia

    By bonesiii,

    I'm really short on time today so I'ma gonna use a quote from one of my posts. This is from Emperor Kraggh's topic: How Do Newcomers View Nostalgia? which is, BWT, almost dead despite being an interesting topic. (Revival is 30 days in GD so there's still time to post as of this moment!)

    Bold is for important points, not emotionalism.



    This is just my view of it; I'm no scientist, but it fits perfectly with my observations of myself, you guys, people in real life, etc. It seems that not only is enjoyment about personal taste, but about the "lockdowns" we impose on our own tastes. Sorta like a "cool kid" in school letting everybody else tell him what he's allowed to like just so he isn't seen as "weird" (which is rather silly considering everybody's supposed to be weird, not clones lol), only in this case we are letting a past experience tell us perhaps too exactly how we are to be pleased.

    And lemme emphasize that this shouldn't be interpreted as preachy -- it's up to you if you want to "unlock" your own tastes fully, or if you want to stick to a more narrow definition of what you allow yourself to like. It's all taste, therefore subjective, therefore it's not a crime to be confined by nostalgia. However, "unlocking" it may very well help you be a happier person, so it's worth considering!

    A simple trick is to pretend that every year, you are coming into it like a new fan, who doesn't remember the old years, and just let your own tastes judge the new year freely, in the same way your tastes judged the old year. Doesn't mean you'll necessarily like new as much as old, but perhaps it can help.

    Everybody on BZPower who has ever said that they have tried this tells me that it works for them.
  4. bonesiii
    My thoughts and reactions about the Toy Fair summer set images. Note a lot of this is my own personal taste, along with some predictions on what most fans will like thus will sell well. (Entry on Taste Discrimination coming in just a few days this week.)

    Before I begin, lemme point out that how I am defining "cool" IMT in this entry is shown in the Ruthless Elegance blog entry (see the linklist content block). It's what I personally like in Bionicle sets, but also what generally seems to be what most fans also like, so my reactions to some of this might be helpful in that way. I'm going to note some places where I differ too.

    Nynrah Ghost Blasters


    Awesome concept. I love anything involving ghosts. I don't even have a clue what it means and I love it already. This weapon is much cooler IMT than the style of the Cordak or the rear half of the Midak -- it's not quite up to Zamor or Kanoka launcher levels of coolness but it's an improvement.

    Biggest thing is that there's at least something "cool" about the whole thing. The ammo itself is somewhat stylized in the front, and the accordion part is cool with its serrations in the back. The shape and side-swiping pieces is coherent (unlike the Cordak), and looks pretty good.

    Plus it's yet another method of launching, one that reminds me of old-fashioned machinery and thus gets automatic kudos -- very innovative for a Bionicle weapon, yet bringing back a concept from past LEGO lines. Some worry LEGO will run out of ways to fire Bionicle weapons (I'm still hoping for bow and arrow weapons!), and maybe so, but we're definately not there yet!

    And the "red" part on the Cordak seems to only be red with a set with red -- so we have color coordination back.

    Only thing is it still could use a little more styling like Toa swords or the like get, including the ammo -- we really have yet to see truly styled ammo except for the rubber Squids which had other problems).

    But overall, bravo!



    Makuta Mistika

    For a fan of "ruthless elegance", these are sheer perfection. I am frankly shocked at just how awesome Krika is -- the only problem is I won't even be able to coolify him at all. THAT is exactly the kind of thing I've been saying for a while I love and want more of. I don't even mind that he's white and red which aren't usually my favorite color combos.



    Second fave is lime Gorast -- great mask (seems kinda Doomahlike, and also a lot like the MOL Kraakhan or however it's spelled lol), six limbs , great claws. The wings are pretty good too, though I could coolify 'em. They look like they could double as interesting Toa swords.



    Bitil's body design and limb arrangement is still unclear to me so reserving total judgement. The weapons are some of the coolest I've seen in the whole three-year arc though. And that mask is awesome. BTW, is it just me or might there be a Hordika neck in those heads? Or something similar? Because those are the good old Bohrok eyes. Also, yellow and black works well for him.



    Vehicles

    Haaaaaaaa-HWOOOT!

    Wow. I'm very impressed. Toa Ignika was a hint that Bionicle vehicles were getting more "ruthlessly elegant" but I didn't expect this. One possible concern is that Bionicle fans traditionally look at bigger sets as "Too 'Technic', not 'Bionicle' enough", and I see a lot of Technic design elements in this. This is a risky move that hopefully the minority fans on here will like, but we'll have to see how it plays with most fans.



    Personally I love Jetrax's and Vultraz's vehicles best. Rockoh's is pretty cool too. Axalara's is a little blander and more "technicy", although I like the boldness of how freakin huge the front is with the tri-wing design behind it. It does resemble some spaceships I've designed before, lol.



    But the silvery, knifelike designs on Jetrax's, with those awesome engines are the height of cool in vehicle design.



    With the figures themselves, I did think the color schemes could have matched the vehicles much better. I'm really tired of red and green being combined, ever since one of the Vahki if memory serves. IMT it's really not a cool combo. It's Christmasy, I'll give you, but that isn't usually related to how it's used. Red figure with blue vehicle is unfortunate too. I never was that huge a fan of the old "Takua" coloring. Seems too "American wearing jeans" rather than Bionicle, if you will. Orange with green is okay though, but again better combos could be picked.



    I'd personally put red with red on Axalara, orange with blue (okay, it's my blog colors so sue me), and green with green. Also, I'd keep Vultraz red but use less of it.

    Overall, I hope this sells well, cuz it roxorz!


    Takanuva

    HANDZZZZZZ!



    For many years past, Binkmeister would do a review of a Toa and he'd say something to the effect that he just didn't get the "Toa shoulder" pieces being used as hands. We've sortof gotten used to them since 2001 which did have some hands, but really, they're a copout IMT.

    In recent years with titans Bionicle has been steadily improving some hand designs, such as Axonn and Hydraxon (Ironicles!). But we've yet to see one in a Toa. True, Takanuva is now a titan, but he's really not that much bigger than canister sets.

    I'd like to see hands like that be migrated somehow to canister sets in the future.

    Takanuva as a whole is rad cool, definately up to par and improved upon 2003. The shadow/light dichotomy is portrayed well in set form. He's got tons of ruthless elegance, especially the hands and mask. And he's really almost identical in the most visible features to his 2003 form so he's easily recognizeable, at least if you heard about the Shadow leech attack, heh.

    THAT is what I would want in Toa, albeit sized down slightly and put in canisters.


    Toa Mistika

    Sigh.

    Yeah, that's pretty much the chorus out there, I know, but... I dunno, I just keep wanting more out of the Toa Newva. If you'll pardon me, I'm going to begin with a huge con for once.

    The masks.

    And yes I know it's possible they're prototypes but I saw nothing on that either way, so it's wishful thinking at this point.

    I defended the Nuva Phantoka's masks because in addition to looking "ruthlessly elegant", they bore a lot of resemblance to the 2001 and/or 2003 forms of the masks. The Kakama is the same basic shape, and even resembles the also-similar Vahi. The Miru looks very much like the Miru Nuva fused to a modified Miru Mata. The Akaku is admittedly weak and looks a little more like Toa Metru Nuju's mask, but the characteristic visor is of course similar.

    But these? The closest similarity I found is the serrations on Tahu's knight-helmet-mask. His is also my favorite of these three, but really, it's Knight's quest more than something I would want on a Toa (that's me). And the facial expression of it looks... I dunno, timid, fearful? I could imagine plenty of similar but much more heroic designs.



    On the plus side, I do have a fundamental difference with most fans here -- with the Hordika, I wanted more beast-like heroes, but they wanted more heroic looking ones. I think it's why I've begun to like the villain designs slightly better than the hero designs in recent years. And you gotta admit, a knight's mask, even with the facial expression, is the very symbol of heroism.

    Onua's mask is fairly cool looking. I did want more resemblance to the Pakari Mata as that is one of the most "ruthlessly elegant" masks ever IMT and it was the one that got me looking at Bionicle in the first place, but I can buy this. There IS a sliiiight resemblance to the Pakari Nuva. I still say Onua should have purple in his color scheme though to be more eye-catching.



    And Gali's mask. This frankly looks like a prototype more than a Kanohi you would actually buy. I can only hope. It's the most dissapointing, especially on a female. I didn't mind Hahli Inika's moustache, because the mask still looked feminine, but this is Krekka's face. Only reeeeeally simplified, minus anything "cool" as that means to me, and really not even that coherent.

    Plus side is the "fins" on the sides of the mask. Those are pretty cool.



    The "jet" things -- Eh, reasonable. I had been hoping for something unique to each one like the Phantoka though. They're nice quaint little pieces that I think I will love for System/Bionicle Fusion MOCs. I especially like how the fin things attach to them in Tahu. Choice of red for Onua is confusing and conflicts his green eyes (there that pesky combo is again).

    The "claw-decorations" like on Tahu's back of legs are cool. This especially brings "adaptive armor" to mind. This is spikes sticking off -- this is what I describe often as an essential to ruthless elegance. Much like the Piraka.

    Gali's shoulder armor is excellence in silver plastic form. Coherent, bold spikes. Not sure if it's feminine but hey.

    I could have picked "cooler" limb armor for Tahu, frankly -- the Metru blocky ones are kind bleah. Onua's is my favorite one though, and I see Gali has that too.

    Feet -- I like Gali's Metru foot, and Onua has my absolute favorite foot ever (as I say every time I see it lol). That foot is ruthless elegance incarnate. Tahu's foot is that awkward Hahli Inika foot though that I keep hoping will die. It's not that cool.

    Tools.

    The only one I can make out for sure (aside from the blaster) is Tahu's. This is basically a simpler version of an old prototype shape seen in a titan prototype from 2005 that I've been desperately hoping would finally be used in set form for years. (That was a prototype Rhotuka apparently.) Bravo!

    The thing on Gali's back -- I can't quite make it out, but it looks cool enough.

    Onua -- I'm not sure if he's holding a tool??? There's something but the pose in the pics is too awkward.

    Armor -- Okay, I know sets come before story, but if the Nuva have adaptive armor, why do we still have no body armor? I fail to see how lack of body armor makes them look more heroic. Maybe it's just me though.

    Poses

    BTW, why is it that LEGO poses the sets so awkwardly every single year? At toyfair is not the exception -- it's the rule even in the main marketing images for the most part. In 2001, the poses were awesome, though they were deceptive -- since the sets can do that now, why not pose them in cool ways too? I think the pose is a huge part of successful marketing.

    I know some of this is just the angles those photos happened to be taken in, but still. Some of those poses are just weird, mainly Gali and Onua, and Krika too. A heroic pose could help too couldn't it?

    Tahu's pose is pretty good though, and admittedly the characters on the vehicles are pretty much forced into those poses.

    Plastic's Higher Cost

    The biggest risk to these sets, and even to Bionicle's future, is possibly going to be the increased prices that have been forced on LEGO due to rising petroleum costs, and recently rising steel prices. The newly higher cost of a Makuta Mistika was put off for a few years, and for that LEGo deserves gratitude, but it's getting unrealistic to continue that. At some point you have to try to keep making a profit or at least breaking even, or it's not worth it.

    As said in the last blog entry, this might be related to the problem in Canada with Walmart -- now you can see the problem is in the US as well, and probably everywhere else. This pretty much confirms that this is a huge part of the whole Canada Walmart fiasco, though there hasn't been an official explanation I've seen. Let's all be careful not to take this out on LEGO unreasonably -- remember the hold-off.

    That said, if this is a trend (and it might not be), LEGO may eventually have to abandon plastic altogether, just as it originally did not use plastic. But for now, we're probably a long ways off from that decision.

    Prediction Time

    These villains should explode the shelves, let alone fly off them. Krika might be very hard to find, heh. I expect these to sell like Piraka and Barraki, and possibly much better.

    Takanuva is very, very "Bionicle" and heroic even despite the dichotomy of light and shadow, and should sell well for a titan. The results for him interest me especially.

    The mixed hero and villain release schedule should work well as predicted for spring sets, because most fans are roleplayers and this allows instant roleplaying. This alone could make sales shoot through the roof.

    The vehicles will definately sell better than the 2001 Rahi as they are still very Bionicle, but whether they'll sell like 2003 Ussanui and Takanuva considering that they're so huge (some anyways) remains to be seen. It's a big risk. I'm not confident enough to predict anything except that the smaller and well-color-comboed Vultraz should sell well.

    The Toa are heroic (with possible exceptions in Tahu's expression and Gali's mask) and should sell well. That said, there's still room for more "coolifying" and I still think that this can be done in a heroic way that could improve their sales even more (like Takanuva 2008!!!). I predict they will sell sell, but possibly slightly less than the Nuva Phantoka prediction.

    Comparing to the Inika/Mahri, they will either sell slightly worse, or better, depending on how much the fans see the "heroic" question and the coolness. I do not expect them to be either rocking successes or dismal failures.

    A big problem for Bionicle recently has simply been that it needs to be marketed better to get the word out -- this hurt 2007 in some ways. Assuming these get marketed well, Bionicle 2008 should prove to be a strong year, probably around what it was in 2006, maybe even surpassing it!
  5. bonesiii
    Today I had planned to post about the Matoro death flame war that seems to be getting worse rather than dying down. With the death of another character in the latest serial chapter, the issue spreading to this, and the new Character Death Policy, this will be a little more general, starting with the reasons the policy was made. Bold is for important points, not emotionalism.


    Why

    I'll ask that we don't discuss the details of what happened -- that is just going to make things worse. But suffice it to say, many people on both "sides" would do well to read my "Friends Can Disagree" entry below.

    It used to be that we took character deaths in perspective -- as an element of fiction. When Lhikan died, I don't recall there being anything remotely like a flame war. Occasionally there would be a question topic or even a complaint, which we would answer with the obvious -- to keep up suspense in fiction, you do need to actually have bad things happen sometimes.

    Besides, Lhikan has gotten more story time since his death than the vast majority of characters that lived.

    But those complaints were usually reasonable, and even if someone did go overboard, they didn't form "sides" and start fighting.

    It seems that a lot of us have lost the ability now.

    Now, I understand why this happened -- Matoro was a popular character, and also one of the originals, so I've seen emotions on both sides turn this into a flaming trigger, and death is a difficult thing for us to come to terms with, sometimes even in fiction. Someone I know has come to tears before from a character death, and I can understand it. I can understand being disturbed at this, and I can even understand it when people go overboard. Plus this seems to have been mixed with our love of inventing fads.

    But what we don't need is people forming sides that attack each other or post "isn't that side nuts?" topics, making fun of people, etc. These have continued, and I have seen trolling and even direct insults posted by people who've been here long enough to know better. (Again, please do not discuss who or where; that is between them and staff.)

    It's for this reason that the policy was made.

    Now, I don't want anyone to misunderstand -- topics discussing character deaths reasonably are still allowed, in S&T where they belong. The policy is purposefully not super-strict, so I don't want anyone thinking this discussion is banned. Nor are memorial banners banned, etc. as long as they don't go to extremes.

    Perspective Clash

    I think this happened because there are basically three different philosophies out there about fictional death.

    1) That it's an element of fiction like any other, intended to be taken seriously within the fictional context.

    IMO this is the only reasonable perspective. Character death can be serious -- as an author myself, I always write with a serious point behind my works, even my comedies, and I hope that in addition to being entertained, the audience will grasp the serious theme, and hopefully I'll even be able to help them cope with serious issues in real life through this. To do that you do have to allow yourself the chance to feel the emotions of the event as much as you do the thrill of action, but keep it in perspective.

    For example, the point of Matoro's death was that sometimes heroes willingly sacrifice their own lives so that others' lives will be safe, and that though this is very hard to come to terms with, such sacrifice deserves our utmost respect in real life. It's the ultimate form of honor.

    However, Matoro was still just a fictional character, so we should keep that in perspective. In fact, keeping it in perspective is very helpful for understanding the point the author is making.

    2) That it's just the author trying to get rid of a character -- the "killed off" psychological shield I talked about in this past blog entry.

    This has been taken waaaaay overboard in 'net culture. I can understand it to a small degree in a TV show with actors who want out -- but Matoro, Lhikan, etc. aren't that. There's no excuse to pretend this was why Matoro died, IMO. (And like I said, some dead characters get more focus afterward than living characters, like Lhikan compared to, say, Nuhrii.)

    Not to say that this shield isn't understandable -- people don't like to face death emotionally, in fiction or real life. But this perspective, sadly, blocks out any hope of the author helping readers cope, through the device of fiction, with real death.

    Especially when people instantly shout to everybody who hasn't read the book yet "Oh My Gadunka, Dumbledore Dyes!11!1!" Spoiling the event ruins it for others, so you inflict your own inability to cope on others. That can get serious fast.

    (Or make "RIP Matoro banners five seconds after they get the comic, a point that I forgot for the policy and am working on now. )

    3) That the character is as real as real people emotionally but inside a "safe" world of fiction, thus killing them is almost like murder.

    I don't think people in this category consciously think the author is a murderer, don't get me wrong. But this is behind a lot of the sigs and posts that got out of hand, and especially behind some "protest" petitions. The idea is that people who hold to this perspective actually think the author did something wrong by writing the character's death into the story.

    I will admit that if anyone did this when a character died in the Bionicle Paracosmos (as some will), part of me would be a little pleased, selfishly, because it shows I got through to them enough that they don't brush aside my underlying theme with "killed off ell oh ellz!!1!1." However, it would also be disappointing because they're coming at me and telling me I did something wrong, instead of seeing the point I was making. They probably wouldn't even realize my reaction is to barely even register their anger but to instead measure them.

    There is one valid point these members have -- this isn't real life and so yes, it's possible, on paper at least if you'll pardon the awkward cliche-usage, to write a fictional world where good guys cannot die. But in reality, this just ruins suspense, taking away the thrill of the adventure/action scenes because you know they won't die -- and that thrill is a huge part of the whole point of adventure mystery.

    So sometimes, you do need to have characters die. But, obviously it has to be realistic if you want to create the right impact of it, otherwise it would just feel like shock tactics. (That might be done a lot in other fiction, especially TV, but IMO it has never been done in Bionicle; it's been to keep up suspense.)

    And what readers who have never written serious fiction (even for entertainment) often don't understand is this -- stories often write themselves. For example, in at least one story I have written in the Paracosmos, I hadn't planned for a character to die, but as events unfolded, the characters and events forced me into a situation where I realized a death was unavoidable.

    And so it happened.

    This is true of almost all of a storyline, not just death -- for another example, I also had a situation where according to my outline, the good guys would fail (but not fatally) in a conflict, but as I wrote it, the characters outwitted me (outwitted the bad guys, that is ), and they actually won. It threw my planning for the next few chapters into chaos and I had to spend another day re-working the outline.

    (And I could list a plethora of examples, including one that messed up some of my future plans for other epics -- although the end result of those plans is cooler.)

    Chances are slim that anyone would object to this happening -- yet the same machine is driving it. To be consistent, readers should apply this fact to death as well.

    When you have characters defined well, and you have used your imagination to come up with the starting scenario and background substance enough, all an author really needs to do is spend time writing and thinking logically about what would happen. The rest falls into place, sometimes so unexpectedly that the author can be as ignorant of where it's going as the readers.

    When it comes to death, you have to understand that to authors like me at least, when you come to a situation that demands a death, putting in a copout survival mechanism out of the blue feels like a profound slap in the face, even a betrayal of a code of honor. Sometimes, death writes itself.

    Besides, the fact that it's fiction argues against the idea of getting too emotionally invested it in.

    So.

    Most of the time, when a character dies, people don't talk calmly and intelligently about their different perspectives, as they might with other issues. I think it's just the deep seriousness of the theme that causes this. People get touchy about it, and tempers flare more easily -- so that anyone who has a different perspective must be stupid and whatever your perspective is must be obviously right, so you aren't willing to discuss it.

    Add a little jalapeno, and voila, your flame war is ready to broil.

    What's shameful about this, especially when one side starts making fun of the other, is that it actually accomplishes the opposite of what both sides usually intend -- trying to treat death seriously in real life. The attacks become more important, and personally I get an almost ghoulish vibe from the way it seems to get turned into a game sometimes. That is disturbingly similar to a lot of the "Forums Gone Bad" situtations I described here, and it happened in a matter of months.

    Both of the perspectives I described as unreasonable are, nevertheless, understandable. I can understand seeing them as forms of immaturity -- but when you act as mature as a two-month old in response you just shoot yourself in the foot.

    When you see someone putting up some kind of a psychological shield like that, don't insult them. That just makes them hold the shield up higher and harms BZPower as a community. Even though it's fiction, when you mistreat the event on a forum, you are making it serious, no matter which "side" you're on. Try to be understanding instead.

    Discuss Intelligently

    So basically there it is. Discuss intelligently, instead of "clashing" as described above.

    Yes, you might be profoundly disturbed by something someone did, and yes, maybe they went overboard. But privately discuss reactions you object to with staff members, and otherwise, you can intelligently talk about different perspectives, in topics in S&T, in this blog entry's comments, perhaps via PM as long as you are polite. Even with the subject of death, it's not worth fighting over.
  6. bonesiii
    Okay, I'm getting really sick of this.

    Almost every week, I can go into the Sets forum, and find a topic like "Why does everybody hate Tahu?" or a statement inside a topic along the lines of "We all know everybody hates the Piraka."

    Someone sees one post, maybe five, maybe even fifty posts, of complaints about that set, and then they commit the logical fallacy known as Hasty Generalization, assuming that "everybody" feels that way. And that's just the ones that actually post about it in Sets or elsewhere -- there's probably tons of other people who make this mistake without telling anyone so it can be corrected.

    Well, it's false.

    In almost every case, it's actually a popular, well-selling set that "everybody" supposedly "hates." BZPower is a big place, and usually actual polls here show the set in question to be popular. And BZP is a tiny minority of the fanbase itself anyways, that is often very, very different from the real majority.

    Regardless, there will always be some who dislike a set. It's wrong to lump everybody into a nonsensical, made-up-by-you group, just because you happened to meet the people who naturally dislike it. And another thing -- someone posting a complaint about a set doesn't necessarily mean they "hate" it. That's a very extreme word, and sometimes I'm sure it's accurate (though nobody should ever hate a toy; IMO that is simply immaturity). Disliking something is perfectly fine, because we all have our own preferences. That says more about each person's own tastes than about the LEGO set.

    To all those topics asking "Why do you dislike this set?" -- it's because that person's tastes make them prefer something different. Not that you can't ask what the details of that are, but that's the general answer and the most important to understand.

    In reality, nothing pleases everybody, or vice versa. Nothing. Except maybe breathing. But that's not a LEGO set.

    So stop pretending otherwise. Mkay?

    Thanks.




    -------------------------

    In other news, I own Pohatu. And he roxorz. I would prefer more orange, but that might just be me, and the heavy use of stone-gray definately makes a lot of sense. Really, orange is more like his secondary color, at least in terms of percentage. The Kakama is awesome, and BTW, for everybody complaining that it looks too much like the Vahi -- actually, since the Visor is easily removable, I thought it was cool that you could take that away and pretend it was a coolified Vahi.

    And then I finally got something from 2007 now that I have some actual cash -- Gadunka. And to everybody who asks "Why does everyone hate Gadunka?" -- This guy is thrilled with him. Most innovative titan body design, coolest head design, the color scheme works perfectly when you see him in person, the head is awesome, really no complaints other than the instructions tell you to leave some construction pins extending in ugly ways, easily fixed by moving them slightly so they line up to look like screws or nails in a biomech. being. Oh, and to those complaining about the tongue, it's definately meant to be a tongue, because it has its own joint so it can be raised and lowered like one. So that's why it's red, lol. 3-way forked tongue = cool.
  7. bonesiii
    A poem from that Poetry class last semester.



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    Studies prove that most depression
    is rooted in your surroundings. Your senses.

    My Happy Smile Kit has everything
    you need to tickle forth a smile!
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    vivid neon color plates, made of high-quality posterboard
    with our smiley-face logo watermark.
    Hang them all over those walls!

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    by a series of impersonal beeps every morning?
    No more!
    This decorative smiley-face clock wakes you up
    with a personalized voice recording from me!
    Simply record your name in the speaker,
    and you’ll get one of seven random encouraging messages
    addressed right to you every morning!

    Does the slob in the next cubicle
    always get his mug shot framed
    as “Employee of the Month”, never you?
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    The kit comes with a picture frame
    with the words “Person of the Year”
    emblazoned in gold ink at the bottom.
    Simply slide a picture of your grinning face in
    and pin it to your cubicle wall!

    It doesn’t stop there!
    There’s a smiley-face watch that says
    “You’re a great person, (insert your name)!” every hour!
    There’s a soothing sunlamp that doubles as a star ball,
    painting a smiling constellation on your ceiling at night!
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  8. bonesiii
    Enter the Pet Peeve Contest before Nov 29!



    BZP must ban the bad grammers toady! Its really anoyying when member's use bad grammer and speling, their just spaming. it need's for stop! Yay of the grammer hammar! Sine hear!

    If you think I'm making up the style of posts mimicked above, think again. I've seen it time and time again; members complaining about others' bad grammar and spelling, and in the same post, using bad grammar in the very same post, and worse, misspelling "grammer".

    Now, don't think I'm here to rant about bad grammar myself. I've long felt like some of us are too picky and stuffed-shirty about proper grammar. I think we need to stand on a reasonable middle ground, where we promote good grammar, but we don't act pompous when we see someone slip up or not know the correct way. Just wait -- you'll make a typo yourself eventually.

    It does annoy me, being an English major, (and History minor -- believe me, history profs are far far worse than English profs). Good grammar and spelling can help you communicate your ideas well, as people will know instantly what you mean, in most cases.

    But we seem to forget that this is a fansite about a toy, aimed at young kids, to whom English grammar is often a new subject that they're still learning. Also, we get a lot of international members who may not speak English as a first language -- remember this is one of the hardest languages to learn in existence. Sometimes the obsession with "Youse must speak English perfect, capisce?" comes across as insulting or demeaning to these members, something you might not think of if you grew up in an English-speaking country. IMO we should be a lot more forgiving of simple mistakes.

    This also needs said -- grammar and language in general is a constantly changing and shifting phenomenon. There are some examples of new grammar that I support but some people resist; for example, shortening words like "equiv". Personally I've been pushing the use of the plural second person pronoun "yall" for a long time, despite being from the North. German, Spanish, French, pretty much every language has a plural "you", so IMO we should all be usin that'n.

    And there's a lot of new styles of language too. We mustn't forget that all grammar we use today is a modification of a previous grammar and language, so it is inconsistent to say English should never change.

    However, some basics of English grammar should be used consistently so that the meaning of what you're saying is clear, and so that you come across as competent and intelligent. When you mess these ones up, you almost universally come across as ignorant. Ignorance isn't anything to be ashamed of -- it just means you happen not to know something -- but there are real benefits to knowing basic grammar.

    So instead of just the usual useless "use better grammer" complaints, I'm going to actually post a quick guide to some of the biggest grammar/spelling mistakes made on BZPower. Hope dis helps, yo!

    Quick Grammar Guide

    Plural Apostrophes

    The apostrophe ' is to be used ONLY (almost ) for possessive "s". If the car belongs to Tahu, it's "Tahu's car". Possess means to own, notice.

    If he has more than one car, it's "cars." NO apostrophe with the "s" for plural. Plural means "more than one".


    It's and Its

    Here's the one exception to that rule. "It's" is a shortening of "It is". That is NOT possessive.

    The possessive one, as in "what belongs to it" is "Its". Don't ask me why, it just is.


    Your and You're

    "Your" is possessive. It's "your car". The car that belongs to you.

    "You're" is "You are", shortened. So if you say "You're car", you just said that the person is a car.


    Their, They're, There

    "Their" is possessive. The car that belongs to them is "their car."

    "They're" is "They are."

    "There" refers to a place. "Tahu parked his car there, in the garage."


    Grammar

    NOT spelled "Grammer". Just so yall know.


    Capitalization

    Capitalize the first letter of a sentence. Possible exception is if you start a sentence talking to a member who has all lowercase letters, like me. And don't capitalize every word. Just the first one, and any special words like names. (Like "Tahu" is always capital.)

    And don't "ALL CAPS" entire sentences. One word allcapped can be considered just emphasis for when you're in a hurry and don't want to bother with italic or bold tags. But an entire sentence or phrase allcapped means you're yelling, and that is generally considered flaming.


    Comma Splice

    You don't put a comma between two sentences. This one is a little harder to understand, but a common mistake. Basically it's when the first part and the second part could stand on their own as seperate sentences. A lot of times, the second part is a related idea to the first one, explaining the first one.

    So for example: "Tahu parked his car in the garage, he didn't know wheels aren't allowed in Metru Nui."

    That can be fixed by adding a "conjunction" -- a word like "and" or "because" after the comma:

    "Tahu parked his car in the garage, because he didn't know wheels aren't allowed in Metru Nui."

    Or by changing the comma to a semicolon (mostly obsolete unless you're writing a history essay):

    "Tahu parked his car in the garage; he didn't know wheels aren't allowed in Metru Nui."

    Or the modern equiv of the semicolon, the "em dash", which can be made simply by two dashes. On a word processor like Word there are usually ways to get an actual long dash (type a word, no space, two dashes, no space, another word, and a space, and Autocorrect will change the two dashes into an em dash, if that feature is turned on). On the internet it's usually done with spaces and two dashes:

    "Tahu parked his car in the garage -- he didn't know wheels aren't allowed in Metru Nui."

    That one may be a little more picky Lawyerahk than necessary, but personally splices really annoy me. The comma signals a short pause, but in these situations you mean a longer pause, so it makes more sense to use a designation for a longer pause (or a connecting word).


    Spelling

    No spellcheck is perfect, but do try them out. We have a spellcheck feature built into the posting area on BZP, which can help in some cases. [Edit: Erm, it appears not to be functional. Okay, so I'm out of it on that one, lol. It used to work.]

    Free Online Spellcheck.

    It can also help to read professional books and articles, as words are almost always spelled correctly in them. So instead of joining the petiton toady, you can join the petition today. But really, please don't.


    Emoticons

    Yes, this actually is a form of grammar. On the internet, understanding the "tone", or emotional intent of a statement can sometimes be difficult. Misunderstandings are rampant, and often even friendly sentences can be confused with insults. Take this sentence for example: "You're weird, bones." Notice how the meaning changes depending on the emoticon that accompanies it:

    You're weird, bones.

    You're weird, bones.

    You're weird, bones.

    You're weird, bones.

    You're weird, bones.

    Some people dislike emoticons, and actually criticize people who use them a lot. Never did figure out why, but that's fine for them. But you should know that using a simple smile when you mean a statement in kindness can go a long way. In my experience, they help prevent flame and misunderstandings, so it's wise to use them, albeit sparingly. Don't post twenty in a row -- but use them where you would smile or whatever in real life. Remember emotions are for communication; so communicate them with emoticons.




    Anything else major that I've forgotten (that you see on BZP often), please suggest.
  9. bonesiii

    Gali's Real Mask

    By bonesiii,

    Since most people are still judging Gali's mask by the prototype from Toyfair (shown below), I thought I'd do a quick entry showing the real mask, which you can see above. Cred to Wrinkledlion for finding this.

    Hope this helps you judge better.

    (Personally, I like this a little more than the Toyfair one. The lines seem more consistent, and while I like rubber masks, it looks like it would fit in quite well as a new mask power among the Mata Kanohi, which I liked. I still see [almost] no resemblance to a Kaukau though, unfortunately.)

    Toyfair prototype:





    In other news: Keep an eye out for another entry planned for later this week, titled "Friends Can Disagree." Also, Epic 3 work is back underway, and it's shaping up eeeexcellently. I'm actually getting through it pretty fast now. I'm aiming to finish this week, though aim is sometimes off, and then focus will go towards the RPG, skeletal version finishing touches.
  10. bonesiii
    Various Updates:
    For some reason, the blog software isn't letting me post my "Friends Can Disagree" entry, which is written. Although, I needed to cut down on some of it cuz it got too wordy IMO. I've had longer entries so glitch is something else. Hunting it down. (Lol, this is the first image-free entry I've ever done I think -- I'm out of time.) For now, other updates I wanted to post: 

    Has anyone made a "What Would You Name Makuta?" topic yet? Because most of you complaining about the name haven't suggested what you would have tried to run through legal. Somebody was talking about making one yesterday but I can't find one. Dun' wanna make a dupe.  

    Epic 3 is done. Aside from a few names here and there I need to insert. I wrote it with a "possible future" outline handy, but let the story go where it had to, and I was actually very surprised by how it turned out. Some things I had planned went completely differently. I tell you, when you get into the characters, setting, sitaution, etc. enough, the story writes itself and it's just as thrilling, if not much more so, as reading.  

    Plans for what's coming next in the Paracosmos have had to shift slightly, but in a very good way; I'm finally comfortable with the setup of the epics coming next, and the necessities for what the Metru Nui flashback must have are looking more coherent than before, so that's good too. It's coming out so that, I think, that part of the series will be way more mysterious than officially, because I'm focusing on aspects of mystery that are only hinted at during the Mata Nui saga, so it will be more of new ground that happens to be in the past than the history of old ground. 

    So now Ojh and I have to somehow find time to finish the RPG skeletal version. Not sure what to expect here; see below. If I think it drags on too long, I'll begin releasing Epic 3 chapters in the Library. But iiiiiiiiif possible (IF), I will try to do as much as I can myself, since Ojh (who normally handles code) is very busy. I believe that I can handle a lot of the final coding, and if we have to, we can just skip the in-between battles that are left, since we already have most of the story done. My belief might be foolish. We'll see. 

    Real life update: Possible bad news. Things aren't looking good financially right now and I might have to get another job. Everything's up in the air right and I'm not sure what I am planning on quitting here to compensate. Problem is, it seems like I'm the only one here who does the things I do (when I can), and so that's sorta been an anchor keeping me here. I haven't made any decisions yet, other than that I cannot abandon writing -- that is my life. Also I do plan on keeping this a weekly blog no matter what. Everything else... we'll see. Edit: Ahhhhh! I had too many bold tags. Mkay, friends entry is ready as a draft. I'll wait til Thursday for it though. 
    Guys, question: Does my "important points are Bold for quick reading" approach help you with the longer entries? Because apparently there's a mysterious limit to how much of it can be used. I get tired of using it too.
  11. bonesiii

    2008 Is Not The End

    By bonesiii,

    Not a very catchy title, I know. But I wanted to make this so I could stop repeating myself so much. Today the Bones Blog brings you the truth about this much-over-asked question, and some major points to consider about where Bionicle might be headed.

    To everybody asking "Is 2008 the end of Bionicle? It says 'Final Battle'! ":

    No. Stop panicking.

    It's the end of the first chapter of Bionicle. Bionicle will end only if the sets stop selling.

    Everything from 2001 to 2008 has been about awakening Mata Nui (or, in the flashback years, showing what happened when he fell into slumber in the first place). This year, the Toa Nuva are finally being set up to finish that task. The "Final Battle" refers to this final stage of all that story.

    But evil doesn't just go poof when Mata Nui awakes. Indeed, it's possible it could get even worse.

    Remember that in 2004's storyline, we learned that the Dark Hunters, the rebellious Makuta, even in the past groups such as the Barraki were able to wreak havoc before being stopped by the heroes of the Bionicle universe, the Toa, and in some cases others. Mata Nui didn't wave a magic wand and make them all magically stop. Mata Nui's job is to worry about the bigger things, like keeping the underground Matoran universe running smoothly, the roof not collapsing, the domes not flooding, etc.

    So you will still have heroes who can fight enemies, and not "super-over-powered" heroes either -- think of it like a nuclear bomb in war compared to ground soldiers' weapons. You can't just nuke everything to win; you also need the smaller weapons to go into more complex, local situations. If Mata Nui could wave such a wand, it's quite possible he'd cause unintended damage even to the good guys, since he's so powerful. (For example, any Matoran who's infected in some way would be destroyed even though they weren't evil.)

    There will presumably still be the Brotherhood of Makuta to deal with. It's doubtful the Toa Nuva will defeat them all in one year, even if it is a war (which is implied by the term "battle"). The Dark Hunters would probably still be around. Who knows who else is lurking out there. For all we know, the Red Star beings include some big enemies that will be unleashed.

    But let's take this a step farther -- think strategically. Do you think the Makuta will just go "oh, well, you win"?

    No. The BoM might fight even harder with Mata Nui awake, pulling out all the stops to overcome this new challenge. Remember the mysterious inscriptions Zaktan found. Mata Nui might still be in a weakened state too. Don't just assume everything becomes hunky-dory when Mata Nui awakens.

    Besides, it wouldn't make sense for LEGO to remove all bad guys, 'cuz then there'd be no villains to fight, and no way to keep making cash off of Bionicle.



    Now, Greg said that this new direction would involve new ideas with "sets, story, setting," etc. "while still keeping it BIONICLE". That tells me we could very well expect a new kind of hero, new kinds of villains, who knows, maybe even a new master villain! What if there's a part of the Bionicle universe cut off from the rest that has its own seperate story but still has protodermis, Matoran, etc? Just one possibility, but you get the idea.

    And finally, if you don't believe me:
    1) Read this GregF blog entry.
    2) Remember there's a movie in 2009.
    3) Greg's attended planning meetings for 2009 and beyond.
    4) All along, Greg has said they have basic concepts for about 20 total years of Bionicle (and then would make up more later if it stays alive). We've only had 8 years.
    5) Don't forget this year is built around the return of the Nuva which is something BZPers have been begging for in the first place. For them to return, it would only make sense if they finally got to awaken Mata Nui. So the setup of this year is expected anyways; we should be expecting this kind of marketing verbiage for such a major event.
    6) MNOG2 in 2003 was called the "Final Chronicle." Don't take these things too literally.


    Thar. Now I can just link to this, lol.
    Quicklink version:
    2008 is [b]not the end[/b] of Bionicle. It's the end of the first chapter, which has been about awakening Mata Nui. 2009 takes the story in a [b]new direction[/b]. Bionicle will only end if the sets stop selling. [size="4"][b]Please see these links:[/b][/size] [url="http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=39&showentry=24601"][color="#0000FF"][b]Bones Blog: 2008 Is Not The End[/b][/color][/url] [url="http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=26&showentry=20886"][b][color="#0000FF"]GregF's Blog: 2009[/color][/b][/url]
  12. bonesiii
    Today the Bones Blog brings you a telephone interview with our contact among the Orcas -- the enemies of Survurlode who BZPower has recently formed an alliance with. From a canal in Ga-Metru, let's welcome Goblahk!

    bones: Hello, Goblahk.

    Goblahk: Hi there. Thanks for the interview.

    bones: Why don't you begin by introducing yourself?

    Goblahk: Well, My name is Goblahk, and I'm an Orca.



    Goblahk: We're former minions of Survurlode -- he thought he should have something like Sauron's Orcs -- but we rebelled and now he's trying to either conquer us or wipe us out.



    bones: What's your position in Orca society?

    Goblahk: I'm the Official Orca Ambassador to BZPower. As of yesterday, that is, since the Orca Council finally agreed to my request for an alliance -- before that I just went by "Goblahk the Fearless".

    bones: Excellent news! What was the holdup?

    Goblahk: Well...

    bones: If it's something they'd rather you not discuss, that's fine.

    Goblahk: No, it's just... The Orca Council chambers are hidden on the seafloor, and... well, I'm afraid of the ocean. Took me months to work up the courage to go.

    bones: Oh. I see. So that's why you are always staying in rivers or canals like this one in Ga-Metru. That's how we found you to begin with, as I recall. Okay, but now I'm confused. You said you used to go by "Goblahk the Fearless". Yet you're afraid of the ocean?

    Goblahk: Well, it's just that, I have a horrible sense of direction. I always get lost in the ocean. I'm afraid of getting lost, by the way. And of sea turtles -- they might seem innocent but I think they're evil beings in disguise. And shrimp. Not sure why. So, I just stay away from those things, and I don't feel the fear. See?



    bones: Uh... okay? Well, are those your only fears?

    Goblahk: I'm afraid of flourescent lights.

    bones: Why?

    Goblahk: My psychologist thinks it's because I'm distantly related to Orcs, which feared sunlight. But I think it's just the buzzing sound. They remind me of flying bugs. Which I'm also afraid of.

    bones: But, you live in the water...

    Goblahk: Exactly.

    bones: Right... So, what are all these phobias called?

    Goblahk: Oh, I have no idea! I'm afraid of phobia lists. I'm afraid I'll get more fears just from reading!

    bones: M...hm. Well, I can understand some of those fears, but if you have a bad sense of direction, why not use oceanic maps to get around?

    Goblahk: I'm afraid of maps. They remind me of my fear of the ocean. And my fear of mapmakers.

    bones: *whistles innocently and takes note not to mention his new job* Okay, well, let's talk about Survurlode. A lot of us are afraid of him, and would like to see him defeated for good.

    Goblahk: Definately! Well, I was the Orca that the Chief Gremlin tamed once, and I still get a lot of news from him.



    Goblahk: Most recently, he told me that Survurlode was behind that recent virus attack.

    bones: The one that we had the front page note about until recently?

    Goblahk: Yeah. It's was the Chief Gremlin's idea, I hear. Survurlode found out that Google was going to do that LEGO anniversary image thing, and commanded the Chief Gremlin to come up with an attack. He came up with a computer virus based on his own psychotic personality.

    bones: So we weren't actually the main target?

    Goblahk: No, but it messed things up for you guys. Also messed things up on my own website.

    bones: You have a website? No forums, right?

    Goblahk: Well, it did, but I developed a fear of forums, so I removed them.

    bones: *whistles innocently and takes note not to mention that BZPower has forums* What's your website based on?

    Goblahk: It's a Sea Turtle conspiracy site. Here's the link.

    bones: Okay, thanks. I'll read it later. *coughs* Okay, so you know about my idea to enlist your people to help us find the One Refresh - the focus of all Survurlode's power, just like Sauron's One Telephone Ring -- since we've learned it's hidden somewhere on the seafloor. Obviously you wouldn't want to join that. What did the others think?

    Goblahk: Well, they weren't as enthusiastic about that. You see, we believe the Orkrana are probably guarding the area around the Refresh, wherever that is.

    bones: The Orkrana being the mutated krana Survurlode hopes will mind-control the Orcas, which Gollaga told us about in the last interview.



    Goblahk: Yes yes yes! Take the image away! I'm afraid of those things!

    bones: Right, sorry. Well, I'll keep searching in my Orange Submarine on my own then.



    bones: Speaking of the sub -- I've recently finished taking it around from island to island searching for Pet Peeves that our members identified in our recent Information Gathering Drive, the scents of which Survurlode is allergic to. Someone on our staff told me our engineers and the Orcas have come up with a delivery method for the allergenic weapon. What design did they end up choosing?

    Goblahk: Well, the problem was mainly getting it past Survurlode's defenses without raising suspicion. Turns out he has allergenic sensors that basically prevented all of our delivery methods from getting anywhere near him.

    bones: Oh dear.

    Goblahk: Don't worry. We figured out a design that is guaranteed to work. Market the allergen openly as a food. As cheese puffs, in fact. Survurlode can't resist cheese puffs. We built a fancy truck to advertise it, and bought TV airtime for ads.



    bones: Nice! I just might wanna try 'em myself... I love cheese puffs, you know. Who cares about side effects like intense allergic reactions? ... Wow, it works...

    Goblahk: I came up with the jingle myself for the ad:

    Oh, I wish I was an Allergenic Cheesepuff.
    That is what I really wanna beeeeeee!
    Cuz if I was an Allergenic Cheesepuff,
    I'd make everybody really itchyyyyyyyy!

    bones: Must. Eat. Cheesepuffs... I mean, resist!

    Goblahk: So we'll bring the Puffmobile to Survurlode's island, and it will drive up to Survurlode playing the jingle, and the side will open up and blast allergenic cheesepuffs at him.

    bones: *repeats "resist" in mind six times, then opens eyes* Ah. Okay, sounds like a plan. But, isn't Survurlode currently in the form of an I of Water atop a giant tower? How will he eat them?

    Goblahk: Well, that water evaporates every once in a while, and he needs to have plenty to bring forth his floods to swamp servers, so he's got a giant water production facility for all that. We blast the cheesepuffs into the water, and he absorbs it into his Water Tower. Heh, water tower. Pun, get it?



    bones: Yeah, got it. I was expecting you to say he absorbs its energy like Matoran, but that works.

    Goblahk: Oh, don't mention Matoran. I'm afraid of them. Freaky looking masks and all.

    bones: Oh. But you're not afraid of undead skeletons?

    Goblahk: Not sure why you would bring it up, but yeah, they terrify me.

    bones: *makes note never to meet Goblahk face to face* So, why are you here in Ga-Metru if you fear Matoran? I mean, the city's full of 'em.

    Goblahk: It... what? I thought they moved up to Mata Nui!?

    bones: Uh... Oh, right! I guess they did! I forgot. *makes note to ask the Turaga to keep Matoran away from Goblahk's canal*

    Goblahk: Phew. You scared me there. Much more news like that, and I'll develop a fear of water... That's how my relatives get "beached", you know.



    bones: Dang. This phobia thing can be downright unhealthy, don't you think?

    Goblahk: *sighs* I suppooooooose...

    bones: Well, lemme say this -- with how intense your phobias seem to be, I'm sure all of BZP is grateful that you made the voyage to the Orca Council despite your fear. Our alliance will be very important in the war against Survurlode.

    Goblahk: Oh. Well, um... See, I might not have worded that super well...

    bones: ...?

    Goblahk: I actually hired a Sea Turtle to deliver the message for me.

    bones: You... what? I thought...

    Goblahk: It's not that I've gotten over my fear or anything, it's just, this crazy sea turtle comes swimming up, and I'm terrified, yeah? So I figured it was the best way to get him away from me fast. Took all my money too. But that wasn't that bad. I'm afraid of money.

    bones: Well, I don't want to sound preachy or anything -- you're my guest here -- but have you ever considered that maybe you should try to face these fears? Get over them?

    Goblahk: All the time! But, well, if I did that, I wouldn't technically be "fearless", would I?

    bones: Well... I mean, temporarily...

    Goblahk: Oh, don't mention time. It terrifies me. Temporal mechanics, Evil Clocks, all that.

    bones: *sigh* Well, uh... I think we're probably done here, unless you had anything else to say?

    Goblahk: Just to encourage your readers to spread the word -- Sea Turtles are evil!

    bones: Okay then... Thanks for your time...

    Goblahk: AGH!

    bones: I mean thanks for your... brilliant insight!

    Goblahk: But not brilliant like bright flourescent lights, right?

    bones: Right. Well, talk to ya some other time, Goblahk!

    Goblahk: AGH!

    bones: *sigh*

    [Note: A followup spy report on the Allergenic Weapon attack reports success! Evil Lord Survurlode is gobbling up the cheesepuffs. His I of Water has in fact become a giant blog of orange goo, that is constantly sneezing. For the moment, server attacks seem to be down!]
  13. bonesiii
    All three Coolified Makuta Phantoka are now available in avatars, banners, and wallpaper, in case you didn't see the Artwork Topic the other day. Those were fun!

    Note that the avatar pathnames were apparently too long earlier. I've reuploaded in the main folder -- all the avatars are listed below with pathnames that should work.

    Kanohi:


    http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/kul/antmaskav.gif



    http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/kul/chavmask.gif



    http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/kul/vampmaskav.gif

    Faces:



    http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/kul/antfaceav.gif



    http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/kul/chavhead.gif



    http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/kul/vampfaceav.gif



    http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/kul/makhead.gif



    http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/kul/makdark.gif

    Tridax/Shadow Leeches:



    http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/kul/tridax.gif



    http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/kul/shadleechav2.gif



    http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bonesiii/kul/shadleechav.gif


    In other news -- another Survurlode interview is coming soon, this time with one of the Orcas that he's been warring against, probably this week! Topics will include a potential alliance with these fellow enemies of Survurlode, the recent virus attack, the delivery of the Allergenic Weapon, and more! Stayed tuned!
  14. bonesiii

    Why I Do What I Do

    By bonesiii,

    Often people wonder why I devote so much time and energy to logically analyzing and debating in complaint topics, focused on figuring out if there are problems with Bionicle. In general, people often wonder why I am logician to begin with. Why do I do what I do?

    The following is a quote from a PM that someone (I do not know who, nor do I want to know who) sent to someone I was debating today:


    This is a very telling insight. It's not often that I am privy to "behind the scenes" conversations like this (not to over-analyze it, of course). Sadly, it illustrates the wrong way to go about debates that I see all too often in all walks of life--it's about "beating" the opponent.

    See, as a logician, I approach debate in a way that has much better results:

    I always win.

    And I always lose.

    What I mean is, I look at debate as a search for the truth, between two sides who are friends. I don't want to "beat" anyone, I don't want to "win", as if this was a game or a sport, as if it was about one-up-manship. It isn't. This is about reality, trying to understand it, trying to find it. About truth. That's important to me, much more important than my own ego or whatever. (I regularly torture my ego, whip it, suffocate it... stuff it in a toaster... Make it step on Lego bricks... )

    So, since I look at things logically, if I ever had an opinion that didn't jive with reality, my friends (debate opponents--anyone) would hopefully be able to show me where I was wrong, and I would be glad for this! Because then I could stop believing the illogical opinion, and take up a new opinion that is closer to reality!

    If this happens (and it has many times, believe me, lol), I still end up being right. And my friend has helped me get closer to reality, which is what I wanted in the first place. See how this is a win?

    However, if I am ever tempted to "beat" someone, or "own" them, whatever the label, I must turn down that temptation, however appealing it may seem. It is a trap, a venomous snake that sings a sweet song until it sinks its fangs in. But my ego so wants to push me towards those fangs. Hence the torture.


    I call this "truth-seeking debate."


    But the kind that this PMer seems to be using is "defensive debate", where the goal is just to speechify words to defend your own opinion, no matter what it is, no matter whether it jives with reality or not. That's sad. I have zero interest in that.

    And there's something else to notice--that PMer said that I am "almost impossible to beat". Well, I would actually say that is true of defensive debaters--if logic itself doesn't convince them of reality, nothing does. Defensive debaters don't want to admit when they're wrong. I do. Really, I am much easier to "beat" in that sense than anyone else.

    Because I am honor-bound to concede, when logic demands it. I have to be honest, I have to honestly believe what makes the most sense to believe, as far as I can know. I am very comfortable with this bondage--it means I'm a lot more likely to be right! And I like being right. Not just that--the idea of being wrong terrifies me. Imagine if I was wrong in a question of life or death--and I chose wrong, because of my ego. Now that is scary.

    The only other type of debater I can think of is one who will give in for illogical reasons, and that to me is pretty sad--it doesn't have anything to do with reality. Facts should be everybody's "weakness." Except--they aren't a weakness! Facts are what debate is all about! You might be able to sway someone like this, but it's no accomplishment, is it? It's possible you might convince them of reality, but they don't even know it. I am extremely glad I don't live like that. It's important to me to show this sort of person logic too--logic is the key.


    So my challenge to that PMer (and to everyone, really) is, can he or she accept the possibility that heshe could be wrong too? What if the reason that debater had trouble "beating" me, is that I actually happened to be right? The PMer seems to assume that I must be wrong. Perhaps the PMer should realize that he or she is actually wrong about something?



    As for Bionicle...

    When it comes to Bionicle debate, my concern is that there are real problems with Bionicle (or there could be, and have been). I want Bionicle to do well, and to me complaining about real problems is a vital part of helping it do well. If we cannot logically find real problems... what happens when a problem gets too big? No more Bionicle.

    It isn't enough to just accept every complaint and pretend it's a real problem--it isn't enough to pretend that if I don't like something, it's a problem. But far more importantly--it is not enough to just ignore complaints, and pretend everything is OK automatically. So I have to logically analyze, I have to challenge people when their logic is flawed, I have to concede when there are real problems that can be logically shown, and I believe that I can do some good for Bionicle this way.

    And even if a complainer is logically shown to be wrong, I hope that I can help them see that, and come away happier for being able to know that even though they don't like something, they can rest assured that something is helping Bionicle, not hurting. This is probably my weakest area, and I think I come off as too condescending a lot or sometimes I'm just so tired of debating someone who doesn't realize that what I'm talking about has been debated to death in the past and take too many logical leaps, or I let frustration get into my post, which really hurts this goal. I don't want that--and as a logician honor bound to be honest, I must admit that it is a serious flaw in how I debate, way too often. Trying my best to avoid that, because the goal is to help show others a better way, not to "beat" them.





    That is why I do what I do. But--I could still do better, and I thank the hundreds of people I have debated who have been able to show when I've made those kinds of mistakes.

    Even though my ego loses every time... I avoid the poisonous fangs, so I ain't complaining. And to people thinking like that PMer--let me tell you, one of the most exhilerating experiences possible is admitting when you're wrong. To people who never have, it can be scary, but I've admitted being wrong enough times to know it shouldn't be--it is actually fun! When I can get closer to reality, I feel like an eagle soaring over the clouds. This isn't a dry, boring, robotic life, being a logician. It is wonderful! And I use the eagle metaphor for a reason--it sometimes feels like having eagle eyes, being able to see what many others can't. (The ego is the rat in this equation.)





    And one final note: I am not Spock.

  15. bonesiii
    I may be the only person on Earth with this job.

    I have/am getting a new task as part of my newspaper delivery job that I can get paid for. It's a great example of irony, because I am now making maps for the deliverers with Powerpoint. It's like the fusion of the main character of my Paracosmos RPG -- a Ta-Koronan mapmaker -- with my coolified artwork, and real life. XD

    I had made one for our own half-a-zip-code a while back and just revamped it, that shows easy-to-read dots for the DNDs and VIPs (Do Not Delivers and Very Important People/Persons/Whatever). It's easy to update in Powerpoint when we get new DNDs/VIPs, and has a section to keep track of the mileage on the cars for tax purposes.

    So a week or so ago I showed it to my bosses, and they liked it so much they want me to make maps for other sections of the city, possibly even the whole city eventually. We haven't yet figured out what my pay will be; obviously it will be less than a professional 'cuz I'm using Powerpoint, heh.


    Downside for you guys is, it'll take a lot of time I won't be spending on BZP or writing my epic, working on the RPG, etc. But it's only temporary, most likely, since once I have each map done I'll give the files to my bosses or the other deliverers with easy instructions on adding new dots.



    In other news: Many thanks to Toaraga for awarding me the Blog of the Week on Sunday! I enjoyed the article, too. And thanks to everyone who has congratsed me.
  16. bonesiii

    Bring Back Gears

    By bonesiii,

    Okay so it's late and I had other blog entries planned and I am out of time for this week but I'm trying to keep this a weekly blog. So this will have to do. The Bones Blog brings you today a set-related proposal that just might be plausible.

    No, I haven't mutated into some monster beyond all recognition, if you've read the title and come in here thinking I was the guy that hates gears.

    I do hate gears. Personally. That's just my own personal preference. They are mildly interesting gimmicks, but the cons outweigh the pros -- that is, ruining poseability in most sets, stealing joints that otherwise could use the near-perfect balljoints that I love, being awkwardly placed in most sets, and for a lot of target-audience fans other than myself, a tedious extra construction step that slows down what to them should be a quick and easy build.

    I do like love to use gears as styling pieces in System Fusion MOCs, and I have just so happened to have already used up my supply and wish I had more.

    But none of that is related to this blog entry.

    This is an idea that I and another BZPer whose name frustratingly escapes me at this exact moment had come up with a while ago. I've never actually put it forward in any way other than comments in random posts. But Heir of the Chronicler's interesting Sets topic got me thinking about it again.

    Heir made it clear in his post that he was not advocating a return of gears.

    But my idea is this. Why not bring back gears in one or two canister sets each year, or even just every other year? Now that we are rid of clones, there's no reason a whole team has to have gears.

    Bold for easy reference, not emphasis.

    Here's some reasoning. Variety is good, and there are a lot of people out there that do love the gears. It's probably the most-repeated topic in the Sets forum or GD, or just something mentioned in a generalized complaint topic. If it's focused on just one or two in a team, maybe there will be enough gear fans to make up for the lost sales from the majority fans, or mostly to do so.

    And we've had gears in canister sets before that have obviously survived the market process.

    Now, maybe putting them in the heroes is a bad idea -- but there are also villains, and they've had a little more complex of builds in more recent years. Also, which color to put it in might be an issue -- for example, would it be safer to put it in red, which is probably going to sell well anyways, or a slightly poorer seller like white or black and risk those selling even more poorly -- or just the moderately well-selling colors like blue or green?

    But whatever the set chosen, the basic concept seems to me to be possible. I know it could be a risk -- and maybe it would be better left to titans (as I've heard claims would be done this year -- anybody know if that is true?). It's just worth thinking over, no?

    Any comments?
  17. bonesiii
    With college done and, for the time being, only a weekend job, I've finally had time to get back to the Bionicle Paracosmos. Ojhilom is away on a winter retreat next week, and I am working on taxes, which apparently as an "independant contractor", I have to file by Jan 30 (allegedly -- working on verifying that...). So right now I've decided it's better if I take some time off from BZP for the most part. I need free-time stuff that isn't quite so unpredictable right now.

    As such, I'm finishing Epic 3, "Captain of the Rahunga" this month. For those who don't know or have forgotten -- the computer game RPG takes place after Epic 2, and will need to be finished before Epic 3 can go live. But we're close, and most of what's left is Ojhilom's department, not mine, so I'm going ahead to the epic, half of which was already written.

    Epic 3's main protagonist is Kopaka, and about another third of the story is from the aforementioned evil Captain's POV. The rest is from various others' POV of various kinds, including Hujo, and a reptilian good guy you might recall from the Bonus Short Story -- Bhukasa.

    Some changes in plans must be announced:End of RPG -- We're condensing the battle sequence against the final boss a little for this skeletal version. We have a lot of the final battle, and a lot of the early steps of that battle, and virtually all of the storyline ready. What is missing is the first time you actually fight the final boss directly, and that was planned to be pretty complex code, but really not much storyline value. So for now, it's cut. Maybe in a later version we'll add that in. We'll see.

    With that, the RPG skeletal version is 99% done -- we'll just have to patch up some things and I have to finish two short storyline segments and we should be good to go.

    Note that there's a reeeeeeeally annoying and cheesy glitch with the final boss's graphics that we're trying to fix but aren't having much luck with (his head randomly decides to leave his body... ). No idea how that will affect timing... (We've done multi-event bosses before without this problem, so I'm hoping we just need to do a teleport into a new map with less other events in it. If that doesn't solve it, I dunno what to do.)


    Future of BP, Mata Nui stories -- After a looooooot of thinking and judging our plans for the rest of 2001-2003's storyline in the BP, we've decided we had a major problem that can be easily fixed -- I was wanting to spend more time in 2001 than the official story did, but in doing so, I was trying to stuff too much in 2001 and not leaving much for 2002-2003.

    This would have made a somewhat big gap between 2001's final epic and the 2004 stuff where the mystery would start to pick up again that would have been mostly just filler plot. I'm in this to produce only the highest quality I can manage, even if it means delays -- and I've sensed for a while that there was something off so it's been hard to keep writing without finding the problem.

    Now I think I've got it -- I need to heavily condense 2001 and put some of that in 2002. This way it actually makes more sense, in fact.


    Epic 3 -- And so, Epic 3 will end with the Paracosmos version of the MNOG Makuta battle. I'm infinately glad I've made this change, because previously I'd written about half of Epic 3, and that was great story, but my plans for the end of it just felt like they fell flat compared to the first half, and that's why I stopped at the half.

    Now, I've only had to make minimal changes to the first half and put together an outline for the second half -- and the actual writing is coming along fast now. I am pretty confident that now Epic 3 will be up to par with the previous two Epics, and possibly even better.


    Giant Paragraphs -- Yarr, is it just me, or is Epic 2 reeeeeally awful in the giant 'graph category? Re-reading some of it, and those are purdy huge thar, like in chapter 1. I think large paragraphs are hard to read, so I now try to avoid them in posts, stories, whatnot.

    (For example, I always used to get comments about how long my posts are -- and I used to use giant paragraphs. But I was annoyed enough times with others' long ones that I stopped, and the comments lessened. Ironic thing is the extra space actually makes the post longer, lol. But feels shorter.)

    Will have to go back and do some chopping in my previous stories where I can, methinks.

    Unless any of yall actually love giant paragraphs so much that doing so would cause heart attacks. I'm thinking no.


    Mystery versus Cool Revelations -- Epic 3 is gonna be really interesting in terms of how much of a feel of mystery you guys get from it. It's revealing a lot, especially the background of the leader of the evil Rahunga (through flashbacks in his POV). So I'm basically at that point where Bionicle was in, say, 2003 when the demand for answers is coming up against the demand for mystery.

    That's new territory for me, so I'm learning as I go. It's really fun to write, and is action-packed. One thing I know is that the answers are more fun when they are learned through rocking fun combat acrobatics stories intead of librarian stories, so focusing on that a lot.

    On the other hand, there's plenty of new mysteries being introduced, and there's a BIG mystery I'm just barely moving farther into but NOT answering, that's so far only been hinted at in other places, and will make an appearance at the end of the RPG. And Bhukasa gets a fair chunk of the storyline, with a big mystery surrounding him.

    I guess the fun question for me as the writer will be seeing how much of this generates that feel of mystery in the reader. Something I by definition can't get since I know the answers already. I hope I do alright. (Man, it feels aaaaaalmost like a big exam coming up. Almost. Okay, not that much. More fun. ) In other news: New cat, Buddy, is settling in well. Our other cat, Hunter, is finally getting along with him. Sorta. She till hisses every once in a while. Buddy is as friendly as ever, although he does use her tail as a toy sometimes...


    Dog Ezzy just got a new harness for walks. Whenever I would walk her myself, she would pull on the choke chain so much she would literally choke herself -- and same just hooked up to the collar. Everybody tells me it's just me -- tried everything the Dog Whisperer talks about to no avail -- but the harness avoids the neck so she basically can't choke herself. She's staying next to me almost all the time now rather than pulling ahead. Probably more of a psychological thing with me, but hey, if it works, it works.


    The above paragraph is longer than I would like. Go figure. It also uses "Dog" as a title, like "Makuta Icarax." That one's intentional -- IMO it should become standard for English.


    Second job -- This is a possibility sometime soon, and if that happens, I might just have to give up on moderating and newswriting with any regularity. For now I'm not going to take on a new job because I have tons of stuff I gotta catch up on since my final semester anyways and if I did, I honestly think I might go insane (I'm not joking). But eventually a weekend job ain't gonna cut it. Just a heads up for the record.


    S&T contests -- On the other hand, if I do have time, I've got two contest ideas (well, three, technically) lined up for the future. Main idea, which I think I'd like to try in Spring, is the first Expanded Universe contest, where enterers will come up with [something], and the winners of the poll become official, but the others get to exist in the EU too. Might be a story worked in as the award, or some such thing, not yet sure.

    The other idea will only work when 2008 is nearly over, so no further comment on that one.


    Phantoka Coolified Art -- I have the wallpaper for both Antroz and Vamprah ready but I'm being a lazy bum and haven't gotten around to the av/banner versions. I'm gettin to it, I'm gettin to it...


    Lego Star Wars 2, the latest two Bionicle books, and the Atlas roxor my soxors. That's what Christmas money was spent on. I tell ya, the best present is always cash. Learn it, love it, live it.


    Carnivorous Dresser -- Finally cleaning my room after a half a year, lol. And rearranging LEGO/Bionicle stuff. Unrelated to the Paracosmos, Ojh and I have been working for years on a science fantasy story universe that we almost always use our System pieces for (now often fused with Bionicle pieces; such fusions when done right = the best MOCs ever IMO). Lotta vehicles, lotta warrior characters, all usually grouped into a few "worlds".

    So today I finally got around to arranging the shelves so 1 world = 1 shelf (aside from the main world, which has 2 shelves for 2 different time periods). I set the world shelf up like a scene -- for example, one has two sides warring against each other right on the shelf. Another, the historical time period one from the main world, has everything from a typical house of this culture, to a really cool Fusion sailboat.

    And then the Bionicle MOCs grouped by Mata Nui story arc, Metru Nui/Voya/Mahri Nui story arcs, and the as-yet-still-classified world characters that form the most important group in the storyline. With Gadunka and Pohatu Newva slapped in randomly lol.

    From my extra pieces (which are dwindling lately) I improved a lot of the System/Fusion MOCs in the process. It's interesting how my MOCing methods have ended up now -- I almost treat my entire MOC collection as a single MOC -- with two divisions based on two seperate story universes, Bionicle and System/Fusion, and then different "world" subdivisions in those. Almost never do I actually take MOCs apart anymore because what I'm making is always something of huge importance in my stories and also something I really like by the time I've improved it about fifteen times. New MOCs come from new sets, now.

    Unfortunately, I misjudged the distance between a wall and a gap, so a rock backdrop smashed into a hovercraft, sending part of a wing behind a dresser. So I naturally moved stuff out from under the dresser to simply pick the pieces up, right? But they weren't there. There's just this one spot of blackness where apparently the wing must be stuck, defying all physics and probability and everything. Hrm. I'll figure it out... I hope...


    The above section is really long, and has a long paragraph.


    Bad news -- well, all of this is putting off that Physics topic and more reference section updates. Also, unfortunately, Toa of Kenn has had to resign (I'll leave the reasons for him to tell, if he hasn't already), even though he just joined so some of our newer projects are on hold. But for whatever it's worth, those two things, and new projects, are still on my to-do list and won't be neglected forever.


    Finally, the last important bit of news is the fact that this blog entry is about ten times longer than I thought it would be when I started writing it. Good day.
  18. bonesiii
    2008 is full of Makuta -- even the canister villains are Makuta. These masters of power have quite a lot of, well, powers. Remembering them all can be tricky, but rewarding for fun roleplaying, fan fiction writing, or even just enjoying the Bionicle story. So today the Bones Blog brings you an easy way to "decode" and memorize all the Makuta powers.

    Basics

    First, all modern Makuta have transcended normal life and death. This means they all:Exist as antidermis energy-gas inside strong Protosteel armor Can use mask powers, each has their own mask Can slowly die if armor is shattered -- gas slowly scatters so they must find another host fast Antidermis can control Matoran, etc. Don't need sleep, food Can absorb other beings, killing them and adding to the Makuta's mass, or absorb stuff. In addition, they were all once scientists that made Rahi creatures for the whole universe so often experiment and still know how to make new creatures or mutants. They became guardians of certain zones before betraying Mata Nui, and came to learn just about all there is to know in the Matoran universe. All current Makuta are evil.

    Mask Powers:Makuta of Metru Nui -- ShadowsAntroz -- Corruption (decompose objects)Chirox -- Silence (make target deaf, mute)Vamprah -- Hunger (drain light, energy, positive emotions, turn Matoran into Shadow Matoran)Icarax of Karzahni -- Wears Shadows for now, normal mask unknownMutran -- SilenceSpiriah of Zakaz -- CorruptionKraata Powers:Makuta can make kraata slugs out of their substance Kraata come in 42 types, each with their own power Kraata can that infect masks and control the wearer Can put Kraata in energized protodermis to make Rahkshi armor for another Kraata to control like a vehicle with enhanced power and a staff to focus it Now, can carry Tridax Pods in their chests, with Shadow Leeches inside Shadow Leeches are mutant Kraata that turn Matoran into evil Shadow Matoran 42 Rahkshi Powers42 can be thought of as seven groups of six, like seven Toa teams Each power can be roughly equated with the six elements of the Toa Mata Arranged counterclockwise from Ta-Wahi on Mata Nui Island, elements are:
    Fire-ish Water-ishSton-ishEarthishIce-ishAir-ishThe Seven Lists:
    Here's the powers, with the justifications for how I've arranged them. Note that of course many are a stretch, but the idea here is to aid memorization.

    Most Makuta-ish:
    Most easily identified with Makuta. Shadow and Shapeshifting are obvious, Mind Reading and Illusion were tactics Makuta used most often in the Chronicles Books, Makuta teleported the Toa to the surface after they beat him in MNOG, and Chameleon goes with Shapeshifting.Darkness -- Leads all Makuta powers; fire = leader Shapeshifting -- Water is fluid like Makuta's shapes Mind Reading -- Turaga Onewa had a mind mask power Teleport -- Biggest stretch Chameleon -- Ice can be harder to spot than many things Illusion -- Turaga Matau had an illusion mask power Rahkshi Mata:
    Powers of emotion and destruction, these are the six Rahkshi Makuta sent to stop the Toa of Light from coming.Fear -- Red Rahkshi in Mask of Light story Disintegration -- Blue Fragmentation -- Brown Hunger -- Black Anger -- White Poison -- Green Kal Elements:
    Still not sure why Makuta have these six elements and not the main six elements themselves, but hey. Electricity -- Red Bohrok Kal Magnetism -- Blue Plasma -- Brown Gravity -- Black Sonics -- White Vacuum -- Green Environmental:
    Control over, or resistance to, what is surrounding you is what makes these powers stand out.Fire Resistance -- Fire Toa have this Weather Control -- Water affects weather strongly Rahi Control -- Po-Koro MNOG had more visible Rahi than other Koro Insect Control -- Bugs and dirt mix Ice Resistance -- Ice Toa have this Plant Control -- Le-Wahi is full of plants Strong Attacks:
    These are all destructive powers. All but molecular disruption are easily identified as "projectile" attacks of some sort.Heat Vision -- Fire's hot yo Chain Lightning -- Lightning hits water = bad, reminds me of a water beam Laser Vision -- Lasers could carve rock Molecular Disruption -- Similar to rock coming apart into dirt Power Scream -- Would shatter ice, goes with white Kal of Sonics Cyclone -- Duh Subtle Attacks:
    You are getting veeeeeery sleepy. Now you are asleeeeeeep. Now you're being infeeeeeeected.Stasis Field -- Vakama made Vahi; Tahu used it to put Kal in time-stasis Confusion -- Underwater navigation is confusing Slow -- Pohatu is slow without his mask power of speed. Sleep -- It's dark underground, like night when people sleep Silence -- Kopaka is silent Accuracy -- Projectile accuracy could be done via air currents too Power-ups:
    These all affect the Makuta himself more so than a target, giving the Makuta a special ability, useful in battle but defensive rather than offensive.Limited Invulnerability -- Sorta like the Mask of Shielding Adaptation -- Common example is developing gills Density Control -- Rock is dense Elasticity -- Dirt can bend, as it were Quick Healing -- Ice can be quickly shaped or refrozen, etc. Dodge -- Air Toa are acrobatic, can dodge well NOTE: There may be more powers; for example MoMN had a "Shadow Hand" power in LoMN but it's not known if all Makuta have this power. In roleplaying and fanfictions, it's plausible to make up new powers for them. In the story, we might learn of other powers in the future.

    This content also available in topic form here.
  19. bonesiii

    Track Blog Toolbar Code

    By bonesiii,

    Today the Bones Blog brings you a quick blogging tip; some simple code to put near the top of your blog sidebars that can help you "hook" readers better.

    Why Should I Care?

    Well, if you don't have a blog, you might not, but if you're a blogger on BZP, you definately should care.

    Every blog should have tracking options in a sidebar content block. If I've just entered a blog I've never read before, and I like it, I should be able to click a button that lets me keep track of the blog in the future. Having your blog tracked is a big goal for bloggers. If a reader just reads your blog once, and even comments, that is no guarantee they are following your blog regularly. But a reader who has tracked your blog is probably going to keep coming back, keep reading, keep commenting.

    When I find a good blog that doesn't have any tracking option easily available, it annoys me and makes me less likely to want to come back. I'd have to go through extra steps to track it, and I'm a busy guy. I don't always have time for extra steps.

    So here's some simple code for bloggers to use or modify as needed, that lets you provide this service to your readers. There IS a standard content block you can use that has these options, but this code lets you put it in a more convenient place.


    Fave/Bookmark =/= Track

    NOTE: "Tracking" a blog is not the same as "Bookmarking"/"Favoriting".


    Fave -- Called "Bookmark" in the standard block. This is the best way; it pins your blog at the top of the blog list as viewed by the reader that faved you. It's also done by clicking the little heart symbol next to a blog's name in the Community Blog List. Make this easily visble; it's the biggy.

    (I'm calling it "Fave" to distinguish between browser bookmarking, which this is not.)


    Track -- This lets the reader get email updates when you post a new entry. It doesn't pin the blog.


    There's also RSS (Really Simple Syndication) which I still don't fully understand. But it's probably wise to include it for those who do know how it works (I challenge the notion that it's somehow "really simple" lol).



    Know The Code

    This code includes the "Archive" link too, which displays a list of links to all your blog entries for the reader.

    [url="http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&req=addfavblog&blogid=#___"][b]Fave This Blog[/b][/url] | [url="http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=___&req=dotrackblog"]Track[/url] |  [url="http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=___&req=syndicate"]RSS[/url] | [url="http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=___&req=showarchive"]Archive[/url]
    IMPORTANT: Replace the "___" with the ID number of your blog.

    Example:

    Fave This Blog | Track | RSS | Archive

    If you want, you could make them image buttons too instead of text links. I'm not gonna for the Bones Blog cuz I have plenty of pics already.


    In Other News:
    I am done with college! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

    We got a new cat, since a family we know can't have him anymore, named Buddy. He's still adjusting, and our other cat, Hunter (female, despite the name), hisses at him most times when she sees him, unfortunately. But he's the sweetest cat ever, so no problem with him. Dog Ezni has mostly been okay with the cat; she's already been tamed by Queen Hunter, heh.

    Virus or something, not sure if related to the issues BZP apparently had, is messing up IE for me almost totally. Only Google and a handful of other sites load. Thankfully the download site for Firefox worked and I'm running that temporarily and trying to get the problem fixed. Shouldn't interfere with my online time as long as Firefox works. Please note: I hate Firefox anyways.

    First on my to-do list is to get to the suggestions/errors posted for the BRC.

    Second is to choose winners for the Peeve Contest and get drawing them. I'll probably alternate between this and #1 over the next week.

    Third is the physics official topic. No, I haven't forgotten, Adventurer.

    In reference news: the newbie RKs are settling in with some assignments, and we have plans for a couple more reference topics for the Bionicle Reference Center.

    Blog news: I removed some cluttery sidebars, might remove some more, not sure, and I'd like to draw your collective attention to the new and improved "Skeletal Industries Teleportal", the second content block, which lists the most important entries.
  20. bonesiii
    I felt like doing this as a warmup for making the Pet Peeve Contest winning creatures -- I'm coolifying the Makuta Phantoka for avs, banners, and wallpaper in Powerpoint. I started with Chirox because he's my fave.

    Here's the Artwork topic.

    I'm planning on doing the rest of the Makuta Phantoka and also the Shadow Matoran, if possible.

  21. bonesiii
    Just letting yall know that I'll be swamped until Thursday or Friday of next week. Finals week. Just to make it clear I haven't forgotten I have a blog.

    The Peeves contest entry period has ended, as you probably know. Some winners have been chosen, but nothing's set in stone till I have more time to sit down and read/think about it. A lot of great entries, and it's gonna be fun to draw the winning creatures. I think if I have time in the distant future I'll do more contests like this.
  22. bonesiii
    Reminder: The Pet Peeve Contest is open till November 29.



    Today the Bones Blog brings you a feature on "gimmicks" in Bionicle sets through the years. This is a common subject in debate topics, often with a "gimmick" being implied to be a bad thing, and also often portrayed as something new to Bionicle. But even the definition of "gimmick" is subjective, and the definitions usually used/implied also apply to much older sets -- so what's the actual history of gimmicks in Bionicle?

    What is a "Gimmick"?

    Before we start, we need to understand the word's meaning(s). First let's look at Dictionary.com. Their top definions are these:


    This is surprising -- their #1 definition makes gimmicks sound like a great thing, and the only one that sounds like the typical negative noun "that's just a gimmick" is listed as a verb! These definitions seem almost mutually exclusive at first glance.

    Dictionary.com also quotes the New American Heritage Dictionary:


    Even more confusing -- their #1 is a negative; completely opposite of Dictionary.com's own definition. To solve this problem, I asked BZPers what the word meant to them. In the Sets forum topic "What's a Gimmick?", here are seven definitions members gave:








    So again, there's no clearcut meaning everybody agrees on. What is common through all these definitions is that a gimmick is an "extra", however.

    Personal taste and different "standards", if you will, of whether gimmicks work to each individual are probably a big part of why the meaning varies. To those that don't like a particular gimmick, it lowers the set's quality -- those that like it say it raises it. Some don't like the idea of gimmicks at all, while others like the idea, and you get the same result.

    So the differences themselves give insight into another part of the meaning -- a gimmick is highly reliant on personal taste, perhaps more so than the main, non-extra aspects of a set. It makes sense -- Bionicle targets largely the action-figure-liking roleplayers who like quick builds, which creates its own dichotomy of those who like it and don't, but within even the group that largely likes it, the chances of them all agreeing on the extras is slimmer, precisely because it's an extra. Of course, the point of this is as many BZPers said; intended to increase appeal.

    Another interesting note is that Dictionary.com claims the origin of the word is unknown. That really surprised me, given that the word sounds like "gimme" -- I always assumed that the meaning was basically that, since gimmicks are "extras", the idea was that consumers would think "gimme" about it; wanting that extra thrown in as a bonus. Perhaps, perhaps not, but it would make sense.

    Finally, in regards to Bionicle sets, BZPers seem to agree that gimmicks either ruin or improve the play value of the set, although it can't be limited just to play value. The dictionary and BZPer definitions also include the idea of advertisting and marketing. The basic idea of this entry's banner, for example, is an advertising gimmick used almost universally -- though ads are never that honest.

    So the meaning of gimmick we'll go with is this:

    Gimmick: An extra feature intended to increase appeal beyond the main point of a product, but highly dependant on personal taste, often focused on play value, and also related to marketing and advertising.

    Concept can go beyond just sets, but today we're focusing on sets. Gimmicks aren't inherently bad or good; it just depends on if they work with most fans, like anything else with Bionicle sets. Also note that they're so highly dependant on taste that whether they even count as a gimmick can be disagreed on, based on whether their purpose in the set fits with what one fan sees as the main point of the product.

    So main point will be judged based on the majority preference, with mention of the minority preferences too, but also asking the question of whether the gimmick is "needed" to fulfill the main point. Balljoints are probably the biggest example of something that cannot be called a gimmick in Bionicle sets, as well as similar Technic joints, because motion is essential to action figures/roleplaying, and to Technic as well.



    Gimmicks in Bionicle
    2001

    Gears -- Gears stand out as the prime example of a gimmick in Bionicle history. Used in the Toa Mata, they were definately an extra to the action figure roleplayers, especially now that we know they were consistently the #1 complaint so were not seen as central at all to the concept of Toa to most fans. The meaning is muddled in 2001, however, because LEGO did theorize originally that many Technic fans would be into Bionicle. A big, integral part of Technic is mechanical features, so things like that would be less gimmicky to those fans.

    However, most Technic fans didn't get into Bionicle, and roleplayers turned out to love it, so we have to question whether the main point of the product is in LEGO's attempt; to appeal to Technic fans, or to the actual results. I think the question is a bit misleading, though -- because something like lightup eyes, if it worked for most fans, would be seen as part of the main point of roleplaying, so then they wouldn't be called gimmicks either by the same logic. We have to be objective in this question, or we'll get nowhere other than in circles.

    So if we ask if gears are essential, they are not. In Technic, there are plenty of sets without gears; the only essential idea in Technic is something moveable, and balljoints can still qualify as that; and it was another Technic line, Slizers/Throwbots, that introduced balljoints. Perhaps in Technic some kind of mechanical feature is essential, but fact remains that Bionicle didn't work as a Technic line. Objectively, then, gears are gimmicks.

    Motors? -- The Manas crabs used this gimmick, which is probably easier to identify as an extra because it was only used once in Bionicle. On the other hand, it's a lot bigger chunk of the size and price of the Manas themselves, so we can't call this one clearcut. It's arguable it was the main point of those particular sets, and that it failed altogether.

    Collectible Kanohi -- Many BZPers listed this one, as it's one of the most obvious. The idea that you have to "Collect them all!" is a very old one in the toy market. In this case, what is being collected is by definition an extra to the sets, given that each set already has a Kanohi so you don't really need others to get the play value out of the ones included. Unlike collecting the actual sets themselves, which is central to the toy, but as a marketing slogan itself can be a non-physical gimmick.

    Also included in this are the rarer collectibles, which act as "extras" to increase appeal of the already-extra collecting.

    Bamboo Disks -- We tend to forget that projectiles existed in 2001 (and earlier in Throwbots), but Kanoka disks were inspired by these bamboo disks at the beginning. They were found in the Mctoran sets. Now, projectiles can arguably also be considered part of roleplaying, but again, are they necessary to it? No. They are extras. So they are gimmicks.

    Kanohi -- Masks could arguably be considered central to Bionicle, since they have become a key part of the tradition. But there's not much evidence that sales hinges on the presence of Kanohi, especially looking at 2005 which largely took a break from masks. So even though they may be one of the two most successful gimmicks ever, they are still a gimmick.

    Fall-Off-Kanohi -- In addition to the idea of masks, the idea that you knock them off easily in play is clearly a gimmick too. Generally, you'd think the idea of Kanohi would be to make them stay on well; what hero would want his mask falling off left and right? But in 2001 this idea of easily falling off masks was intended to increase the play value, forming an actual "game" that was central to the intent of the year.

    Now, from what I've heard, this actually was reasonably successful in 2001. However, we saw it dropped in later years with no evidence that its loss has harmed sales in the slightest. Most likely to keep using it over and over would have been seen as repetitive, just like the Kal, so it is still an extra. Makes sense, because it is not essential to roleplaying, and may actually be more annoying than helpful, when the masks fall off when the kid wants them to stay on.

    Snapping joints -- In Muaka/Kane-Ra and Tarakava especially but also in all the Rahi, these mechanical features were the second part of the Fall-Off-Kanohi game, and also part of the whole Technic mechanical functions idea. The game depended in large part on the purchase of a Rahi, which didn't sell well, so a lot of fans probably never played it in the way intended anyways.

    Rubber bands -- Minor note, but these were a key part of the snapping joints of some Rahi and later the Bohrok.

    Springloaded Pistons -- Used in Tarakava; they are what they sound like. Pistons with a spring around them to act like shock absorbers. Their role in the Tarakava was highly extra.

    Teeth/Jaws -- Special white teeth pieces were featured in most Rahi, usually with a jaw action feature.

    Canisters -- Canisters not central to action figures; another example of a gimmick. The toy inside the box is what's essential, and plenty of LEGO sets sell fine in boxes. This appears to be a gimmick that works, as long as the style varies each year so the new sets always stand out from the old ones, and canisters in general stand out from anything else on the toystore's shelves.

    Powers & Attributes -- One that's only partly in the set realm is storyline "attachments" to the sets that might affect how a person sees that set, or that Kanohi, etc. Mask powers, the personality bios of each character, etc. that are very prominent in marketing does seem to influence how a person likes or dislikes a set. For example, the idea that each mask has a different power can provide motivation for a roleplayer to buy collectible masks and imagine their Toa switching masks and using those powers.

    Clonism/Variety? -- I hadn't even thought of this one, but many BZPers listed it. Personally, I'm still not sure how clonism counts () but variety in a set series makes sense as it is an "extra" uniqueness to each set that makes you want to buy it seperately. I guess clonism could count on the idea that the "extra" similarities might be seen as making a team that "matches" or pieces that can be used in MOCs in different colors, etc. If I'm misunderstanding how you guys meant that, lemme know. Clonism began with the Toa Mata/Turaga/Mctoran, and technically with the two of each kind of Rahi, but the different types of Rahi showed large variety.

    Overall -- As you can see, 2001 was a highly "gimmicky" year. These do not even include things like the card game, promotional tours, and marketing slogans/posters. Even the storyline itself could be viewed as a gimmick, though it quickly became central. Obviously the storyline varies from year to year, and even its seriousness and depth of quality is an "extra" when it comes down to it -- the point of it is to help sell the sets. The large number of gimmicks argues strongly against the idea that later years were somehow more gimmicky, especially when you consider how many of these were later dropped.



    2002

    Krana -- These second-generation collectibles and "extras" on the Bohrok sets could function like Kanohi, like brains, or like projectiles, and they also were the first examples of rubber being used for biological components in Bionicle. (Ironic that the first robot sets used the first biological parts.) Definately a gimmick on several levels. They were quite popular this year, but that popularity was confused in 2003 with a "central" theme, along with the Bohrok design.

    Ball-fold-up design -- Bohrok could fold up into a ball, which might be essential in Transformers, but to Bionicle it is an extra.

    Wearable Exo-Toa suits -- One BZPer listed this, and it's a good point I hadn't thought of.

    Exo-Toa rocket cannons -- Probably one of the longest-lasting gimmicks and projectiles in all of LEGO, as they've been used in tons of lines since, including pirate/castle ships and Star Wars sets.

    Snappable neck -- Bohrok and bahrag both with this carryover gimmick from the Rahi. Bohrok using it in a new way with a special gear-lever that MOCers have struggled to incorporate ever since.

    Collectible Krana -- Same concept as the collectible Kanohi.

    Gears -- Still around, mostly the same but also with the special lever-gear mentioned above, and the gears-button in the Bohrok necks.

    Brainpans -- Bohrok eye-triggered brainpans and poppable headshield that could turn their brains into projectiles. Very strange () but innovative gimmicks.

    Teeth -- Bohrok featured white teeth, just like the Rahi, though why is still unclear given that they are robots. This was the last of the major uses of teeth until 2006.

    Transformations -- A gimmick used partly to keep characters in the story, but also with the Nuva, and soon with the Kal, basically a way to repackage an old set and hope it will sell again. Seemed to work "alright" with the Nuva, but sales overall dropping, as people wanted new sets.

    Overall -- Note that I'm not listing some from 2001 such as canisters or clonism that became mostly consistent ever since. 2002 was pretty equal to 2001 in gimmicks, possibly using them a little more depending on how you look at it. Both years had a lot of them.



    2003

    Krana Kal, Foldup Bohrok, snappable necks, transformation, etc. -- Copies off of Bohrok used in the Kal.

    Silver -- Use of this color heavily could be considered a gimmick.

    Kraata; collectible and in-Rahkshi -- Same concept as before, although not fitting on faces like Kanohi. These used both rubber, and a newer "creature" shape of slugs that turned the collectibles into actual creatures.

    More joints? -- For a short time, knee joints could have been seen as gimmicks, though they quickly became essential as expectations rose among the fanbase for quality action figures. Debatable, since other joints had already been standard. But in 2003, the knees were the talk of the town, as it were.

    Valuable Collectibles Beyond just rarer collectibles, there were some silver, etc. collectibles that were actually valuable in material terms. Despite this gimmick, the concept of collectibles couldn't be saved, it seemed, and so it was dropped the very next year.

    Overall -- 2003 was a year of really very little innovation in terms of gimmicks. It was heavy with them, but there was not much new.



    2004

    Kanoka Disks -- The moment when projectiles truly took off, not quite "replacing" collectibles yet (see below), but definately becoming a "gimmick" that's been a force to be reckoned with ever since. Also, even though projectiles had been in Mctoran small sets, Exo-Toa titans, and technically the Krana of Bohrok, true projectiles had never before been included with canister sets. This year all Vahki had them, and Toa Vakama had one as well.

    Launchers -- In 2001, and 2002-3, there really was nothing like a special "launcher", except the Exo-Toa rocket. The Mctoran were supposed to just be throwing them with their arms, and similarly the Bohrok's brainpans were built-in too. This year, the launchers themselves were focused on as a gimmick more than previously (except debatably in the Vahki as those were somewhat built in too). This concet would grow more pronounced in later years.

    Kanoka codes/collectibility -- The main reason Kanoka were said to be collectible; the codes that could unlock online content. Also, each Kanoka of the six Metru and of different power codes had a different power in the storyline.

    Gears -- Those pesky gears are still hanging on for dear life this year, though it was their last year of almost universal use in canister sets. The Toa Metru introduced a new body shape designed specifically to house a two-arm gear system internally, unlike the external-gear Toa Mata chunk. For those that do like gears, it was an admirable attempt to save them, along with another one the next year, but it wasn't working.

    Overall -- The number of gimmicks seems to have decreased in this year. Fall-Off-Kanohi are gone, as are most overly Technic features, except gears. However, innovation in the realm of gimmicks returned, with projectiles mainly. It seems that Bionicle was now learning what kinds of gimmicks work with its fanbase and what kinds don't, and adapting accordingly.



    2005

    Rhotuka -- The first projectile to disavow the concept of "collectibles" almost completely. The idea of the launcher was different this time -- it actually uses a tiny gear and a pullable tab to launch, while the launcher itself is largely hidden inside the construction. So whether the launcher counts as its own gimmick is debatable; I'll simply consider it part of the Rhotuka, as without it the Rhotuka would be totally useless. Obviously, runs of the helicopter concept. Definately a gimmick, and a popular one. Only aspect of this that resembles a collectible now is the ammo packs, which I'll also count as part of Rhotuka.

    Arm Gears -- the last gasp of a dying breed, the Toa Hordika featured these special arm gears in one arm. Other than this, we saw an unprecedented level of "joint purity", if you will. Innovative, but not enough to make an unpopular gimmick popular. Gears remained the #1 complaint.

    Snapping jaws -- Visorak jaws could snap shut when body closed down. Obviously another gimmick. This one was also innovative.

    Bending tube functions -- Many of the titans used a bending rubber tube to create a snapping function, without the use of gears. Innovative yet again, and seemed to solve the gear problem, but it was only used in 2005. Not sure whether that was because it wasn't successful or not. I don't have data on that. Could just be that they weren't re-used to avoid the repetition problem of the Kal.

    "Bulb Gear" Spinning pieces -- Technically the pieces in Keetongu and Roodaka's spinning shield/claws were a new kind of gear, though they came colored and didn't look much like gears. Again, these were only used in 2005. The concept of them was to make spinning easier.

    Bi-colored tools -- Much like silver in 2003, could be considered extra.

    Overall 2005 saw a move away from the less-successful gimmicks of 2004 and before, such as gears and collectibles, and featured a lot of innovation. It began the new tradition of projectiles, and also the ushered in the new age of Bionicle success after a downward slide in 2002-2003 (2004 being on the up but still down after 2003). Gimmicks alone were not the cause of this success, but they illustrate the active attempts to move more in line with the fanbase's majority tastes that was the cause.



    2006

    Zamor Spheres -- Spherical projectiles with a unique intangible water-balloon style story-power. Also with ammo packs. Continued the new tradition begun with Kanoka and established with Rhotuka, but fired in a new way, relying on back-pressure that makes the sphere pop out and fly far. And begin with a "Z".

    Zamor Launchers -- Like Kanoka launchers, these were highly visible as weapons. The last of the launchers so far that was constructed out of pieces (like Rhotuka and Bohrok brainpans), it resembled a mix between a crossbow and a hi-tech gun.

    Zamor Ammo clips -- Attached to the top of the launchers in the Toa Inika and some other sets; an extra to the extra that launches extras. Allowed multiple Zamor to be fired rapidly, using gravity to reload the firing area on its own.

    Lightup Eyes -- First use of lightup pieces in Bionicle, and something a lot of people on here including me had been asking for, given that Bionicle characters have always been shown in marketing with lit eyes. Piraka eyes had actual story powers too, so technically they were not the existing lit eyes -- storywise their eyes would be already glowing, but then they would flash brighter when they activate their powers; really when you press the button. Batteries weren't replaceable.

    Lightup Swords -- Same idea as Piraka eyes; used in Toa Inika swords, this time with replaceable batteries. Both kinds of lightup concepts were dropped after research showed that while most fans didn't mind them, they didn't increase the sets' value.

    Organic Kanohi -- First, and last so far, of the rubber Kanohi used in the Toa Inika and attaching to special featureless "heads" by snapping to the sides. Helped create a biomechanical look that previous sets lacked, another thing many including me argued for given that it was already in the story since the beginning, and in this case, in the sets with small examples like Krana.

    Piraka Spines? -- I'm counting this as a gimmick mainly because it was the first rubber piece used so prominently, and no sets since have featured something quite that ambitious. Could be argued they don't count since they were such a major part of the sets, on the same grounds that the Manas motors might not count. Also note that both examples of rubber were more prominent in 2006 than 2007, so this may have been another example like 2005's rubber actions features that might have been dropped due to unpopularity, or might simply have been trying to stay away from repetitiveness. Note that the biomechanical look itself remained popular in 2007, and some rubber parts remained too; but rubber itself wasn't used quite as much.

    Leg pistons -- Used in some of the Titans, this is somewhat like the Tarakava pistons, except from what I hear, it does help support the weight of the titan. So it's somewhat functional, but not necessary as other titans have existed without it.

    Piraka Teeth -- A new kind of teeth, similar to Bohrok in that they lack a functional jaw; they are for appearance only. They also glowed in the dark. They gave the Piraka a unique grin that has set them apart from all villains before and after. Unlike the Bohrok, though, and like the Rahi, the teeth made storyline sense because the Piraka are biomechanical.

    Axonn's fingers -- Self-explanatory; I'm considering these gimmicks because such fingers are unique to titans to far. I suppose UD's fingers could count too in 2004.

    Nonclonism? -- One the same principle mentioned in the 2001 section, nonclonism as begun to be really emphasized in 2006 was a major reason to buy more sets. Debatable whether it's "extra" or not, though.

    Overall -- 2006 had an increase in gimmicks, roughly back to the 2001 levels, but better focused on what most fans wanted, with some apparent exceptions. Featured a lot of innovation yet again. The style was heavily into "cool" (as I define it, anyways), perhaps more than the next year (depending on what you focus on; overall, that's debatable).



    2007

    Squids -- The first true rubber projectile, with Bohrok Krana being the closest previously, these actually rely on the snapping power of their stretchable tails to fire. Unfortunately for many, they are difficult to fire properly, to the point that many never did master it. They can attach to holders on the Barraki in various places for storage, and can stand on their own in storyline though their main use is as a projectile, with their lifesucking power. They're single pieces, unlike Zamor, but like Kanoka launchers.

    Squid Launchers -- The first launcher to also be rubber, presumably to soften the wear and tear on the squids. BTW, these and the Zamor launchers were designed so they could be fired in a kid's hand, seperate from the sets, and to a degree the same could be said of the Metruan and Vakama's Kanoka launchers. With this one, there's cleary a finger-sized gripping loop, so we are starting to see the launchers move a little away towards the fiction of it, and towards the toy aspect.

    Bendable Jaws -- The Barraki's buglike jaws could be pressed in on the sides. Not with a rubber band like the Visorak jaws; just bendable plastic, more like the Mctoran arms of 2001.

    Cordak -- Ammo for the first gatling-style Bionicle weapon, and the first to clearly resemble a gun, which seems to resonate quite well with most fans (apparently despite the launcher's lack of cool styling). Ammo can be stored in sockets for plus bars anywhere on a set. Also colored red to be easier to see.

    Cordak Launcher -- Features pumping action and rotating barrel. Also can be held on its own, with a large button on the back clearly designed more for the toy than the fictional concept of the hero. Introduces a strange-looking but functional ball joint sticking off one side so it can attach directly to things like shoulder mounts.

    Various Barraki specials -- Nonclonism being emphasized even more this year, we also got things like Carapar's claws that are simply action features. His claws are just a joint, for example. Another big example is Kalmah's rubber tentacles.

    Color-mixing -- Had been used in 2003-04 but not as much as in the Barraki this year.

    Tubes -- Mentioned a lot by BZPers in that topic, they are an "extra" to the Toa Mahri and some other 2007 sets.

    Kongu's brain -- Jokes aside, the System pieces in the Toa Mahri like his head or in Nuparu are another good example.

    Jaller's crab -- Literally an extra; an extra set included with Toa Jaller.

    Kongu's guns -- Having two guns is a gimmick that a lot of fans love, as guns basically = fun fun fun to them. Of course, it's a downside to fans of swords/staves.

    Hahli's wings -- Same idea. These kinds of things can also be lumped in one "Mahri specials" category like the Barraki ones, but they're a little more distinctive than the Barraki's.

    Overall -- The trend of gimmicks in 2007 is the same as with the sets themselves; a move away from clonism as the main focus. Overall there may be a little less new gimmicks this year, however, if the unique ones are lumped into groups like "Barraki specials" and "Mahri specials", compared to 2006. Perhaps most noticeable is that there are two seperate projectiles this year; one for villains, one for heroes.

    2008

    Just some brief notes on 2008 since it hasn't arrived; the level of gimmicks seems to be, again, much like 2006 and 2007. The styles seem to be like 2007 with unique group-member gimmicks and a split between villains and heroes. There's also the flight theme that is shown especially in the "gimmicks" like the wings or the helicopter claws, although that might be more "central" to the theme of the spring sets than extra. In total, depending on how you look at it, as far as we know the number of gimmicks is lower since 2006; more like 2007.


    Conclusion

    The levels of "gimmickyness" in Bionicle have varied, with the most examples in 2001, 2002, and 2006, 2007. Lately in terms of number it has roughly stabilized at about 2001 levels again. No clear trend of increase can be identified as it varies, but a general trend of a downgrading in innovation around 2003 and then innovation going back up afterwards does seem to match the sales trends, roughly.

    Gimmicks are not inherently bad; only if they do not please most fans do they harm the toy's sales, though individually they are disagreed about much more unpredictably than the main aspects of the sets themselves. The styles of the gimmicks have shifted over the years, generally closer to what most fans like best, and focusing better on improving play value.

    There are two familiar, distinctive trends; the past one matching the "Technicism" style of the original sets, and the new one fitting roleplaying better. In fact, since these trends in gimmicks match the time periods of the same styles in the sets, they are generally lumped in with the other aspects of the sets. Those who like the gimmicks of gears are often into mechanical styles of "Technicism", and those who like the gimmicks of projectiles are often into roleplaying and the more biomechanical style of newer sets. The latter being the majority, generally.
  23. bonesiii
    Today the Bones Blog brings you a contest an information gathering drive about Pet Peeves, creatures that feed on things that are annoying. We believe they might be useful in the war against Evil Lord Survurlode, so we want to find more kinds!

    All of the following is placed inside a spoiler tag, because our sources tell us that Evil Lord Survurlode and his minions cannot open these tags due to a glitch his own minions caused.

    » Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «
    Contest Theme Research Impetus: You may recall my interview with the Chief Gremlin, one of Evil Lord Survurlode's highest ranking minions, in which he told us about his Pet Peeves, and mentioned there are many more. You can see all existing Pet Peeves in this art topic with bio info, including a new image of a Stolen Thunder.

    We recently discovered through classified espionage that Evil Lord Survurlode is allergic to all types of Peeves, to the point that he can become unable to summon forth floods to swamp our servers when they are around him. The allergy gets worse with different kinds of Peeves. But we have a problem. I only learned of a handful of species in the interview. The Chief Gremlin has been unavailable for further comment, and his book on them keep getting eaten by the Plural Apostrophe's every time he makes a typo.

    So we need you to give us any information you have about Peeves, which will help us find them in the wild and capture their smell for use in a allergenic weapon against Evil Lord Survurlode.

    So, the question: What kinds of Pet Peeves exist? Do you own any? Have you heard of any?

    Winners will ultimately be chosen by me, but I'll factor heavily "votes" if you comment who you would pick too. Winning entries will have the Pet Peeve idea drawn by me as Powerpoint vector art, and their names listed in a Winners blog entry.

    Rules Research Methods Regulations:

    1) Enter up to three species per person by posting a comment here.

    2) You can enter a peeve concept someone else entered, as long as your concept is your own; i.e. different enough to not be copying. Be aware I'm more likely to choose the first enterer of a single concept than the second, so try to enter something new.

    3) Post info; pics aren't the point of this. I'll draw the art -- that's the prize. You can include your own concept art but I'll make my own anyways. Please don't "vote" based on whether someone has pics, as not everyone has the time or capability.)

    4) Add comments supporting anybody else's entries. These will be factored for (but do not guarantee) winning.

    5) There's no set number of winners, but each person can only win once, not twice or three times.

    6) No spamflame, etcetera.

    7) Don't do anything bad.

    Prize Compensation:

    Winning Pet Peeves entries will be listed in a blog entry, and a new art topic once the Peeves are drawn. A permanent sidebar content block will be added to the Bones Blog highlighting the entries and the entererers. And you get a cookie.

    How to Enter Survey Format:

    Copypaste this format and fill in the info in placeof the bracketed explanations:

    [b]Pet Peeve Species:[/b] [Name of creature.] [b]My Name:[/b] [The name you want to be listed as you in the winning entry, content block, etc, in case you change it later.] [b]Bio:[/b] [Explain the Peeve, briefly. Try to keep it fun-ny! :P Helps to mention if you own it.] [b]Description:[/b] [What's it look like?]

    When it's over:

    Contest closes Thursday November 29 2007 (probably around midnight EST).



    NOTE: There are also Wild Peeves, which simply happen to have no owner yet. Once we get information about a newly discovered type of Peeve, we will be able to capture the Peeves from the wild. Which would make them Pets rather than Wild, but yeah...

    NOTE #2: No Peeves will be harmed in the making of the allergic weapon.

    NOTE #3: Evil Lord Survurlode WILL be harmed in the making of the allergic weapon. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!1!!


  24. bonesiii
    Please note: The following will NOT spoil the identity of a Bionicle character who recently died. I wouldn't even tell you that, but it's been basically leaked past the point of no return now, but I'll hope at least somebody didn't hear who yet. So there will be no spoiler tags here today.
     
    This is an expansion on a recent post about this. And please note, I'm not trying to be offensive in any way about this -- if you feel I'm speaking to you, I apologize if my tone seems that way. I must admit I'm annoyed about this but I won't want to seem to be belittling anybody. What I'm trying to get across to someone like this is -- I think you're making a mistake. And here's why.
     

     
    Okay, guys, here's the deal. I was planning to finish my History of Bionicle Set Gimmicks entry for this one, but something else has come up in response to the latest comic in which a character died (not Mata Nui; he was already dead). If you heard the news, you know who I mean, but please don't say it without spoiler tags. This blog entry is about one -- no, two -- of my main Pet Peeves. *Product Placement Alert! *
     
    It's the "Dumbledore dies!" culture.
     
    "Someone Dies!"
     
    I've noticed this trend growing both on BZP and off it for a long time now. You know me -- I watch S&T as much as I can. Lately that's maybe not as much as I'd like, but I'm reading at least half the topics, I'm watching the topic titles, I'm getting the gist of what's going on in discussion. When a Bionicle character dies, we get this "Lhikan dies!" proclamation everytime. I've seen it getting more and more feverish as time has gone on, to the point that people seem to leapfrog over each other in a mad dash to be the one that posts the topic first.
     
    Now, I'm a moderator of S&T, a guy who eats up spoilers as much as I can when I'm "on-duty". I expect to run into spoilers like this, because I'm often the guy who has to remove/spoilertag them. But this time, I'm taking a break from my moderating duties for the most part due to college, so I'm not reading reports right now, I'm not trying to stay up on all the spoilers, and during this time I'm trying to feel what it's like to be a "normal" fan again.
     
    As I speak, this comic has not reached my mailbox.
     
    And yet I have known for days what happens on one certain page of it. "[Censored] dies!1!!!!!1!"
     
    There's something wrong here. If it wasn't in the fifteen or so posts I saw in one day trumpeting the death of this character whether I wanted to know or not, it was in the banners that put an image of the character right in front of my eyes as I'm just trying to help approve some posts or look for some question I can help answer, etc. with something like "RIP" on it.
     
    Come on! Do you guys really think people can't figure out that means they died?
     
    Translation: Use spoiler tags.
     
     
     
    What is Wrong With This
     
    But it's a lot worse than just spoiling things -- it ignores what this is really supposed to be. A story. Life in fiction. This matters to someone like me, an aspiring author who wants to write serious fiction, even if it is for entertainment.
     
    In stories and in life, people die sometimes. In both, they smile sometimes too. Where are the "OHMYGOSH DUMBLEDORE SMILES ON PAGE 107!11!" people? Most of the responses aren't that extreme -- many are just about whether it bothered you or not, but it's the same thing, isn't it? It seems odd, and somewhat disturbing, to single out death as the thing to object to, or say you don't object to -- it wasn't about that.
     
    Now, I know, smiling isn't as sensational as a death, but what is a story about? It's not about whether the hero lives or dies, but about the hero as a character, as a person. It's about who they are. It's not about doing something that "bothers" you as a reader or not. It's about telling a story; it's about a "who". This character's "character", if you will, is now crystal clear.
     
    But only if you read the story.
     
    You don't get it from the "Heshe died!" topics or the "RIP, [Censored Identity]" banners. Just seems like a slap in the face to the author.
     
    Memorialize the character? Great! That's taking it seriously. Make banners? Fine -- as long as you wait a long time before making them. Memorialize them in spoiler tags. Not topic titles. Fine -- that is taking the author's writing seriously. That is a compliment to the author and it takes herhis character seriously.
     
    Emotions getting tangled up in this? I understand that perfectly. When a character you really liked dies, that's a strong emotional connection that you feel has been cut. I know several people that actually cry when they read a book with a character death. That's a healthy response -- if your grandmother died, you shouldn't go "Eh, doesn't bother me." I'm just saying, you wouldn't go "Grandma dies!!1!11!" either.
     
    The character's death is just as important as the moment where this character smiles at a joke one of the other characters just told. It deserved the same respect, IMO.
     
     
     
    "Killed Off"
     
    A related pet peeve -- when a character dies, we say they were "killed off". As in, by the author.
     
    Guys -- if your grandmother dies, do you go "Eh, she was killed off."? I know it's a popular cliche in our culture, and it's a psychological shield to avoid pain of death. But if you did it in real life, it would be disrespectful to her memory.
     
    It's almost to the point where an author of a series can't even have a story that involves death if they want to touch on serious themes. Good authors do it anyways, so I'm very glad Greg did this -- but it's still a disturbing phenomena among some readers/viewers/fans.
     
    I can almost -- aaaaaalmost understand it with a TV show with live actors. Generally they die in the story because the actor wanted off. But not always, and to just brush all TV live action death aside as "Killed Off" is demeaning to the writers, IMO.
     
    But this isn't TV, and these aren't actors. Nobody's contract ran out. There's no such excuse to pretend this was done just to get rid of a character.
     
    And even if it was an actor who wanted out -- why should that belittle the story being told? Why could we still not say "they died", and treat it with respect just like any other reason? Not all death is random and unscheduled, after all -- sometimes it's cancer that is known ahead of time to probably be lethal at a certain time range, or the like. That's a very comparable situation, except it's real instead of fictional.
     
     
     
    What I'm NOT Saying
     
    Now, again, I understand this is fiction, and entertainment. I'm not saying you guys should bawl your eyes out over this. Honestly, I wasn't that affected by it even after I saw scans of the page in question (though I haven't yet seen the whole comic). What I'm saying is, let's treat this storyline event with the same respect we would show for any other moment in the Bionicle storyline.
     
    And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with giving death a unique notice, with the proper delay in discussion to avoid spoiling it for someone else. I am exaggerating about the smile thing. A little. I'm saying, why be so feverish about it?
     
    I'm not saying I had anything against Greg announcing Mata Nui was going to die. Heck, if you scroll down in the Bones Blog far enough, you might find a joke about that. I'm also not saying there's anything wrong with memorial banners, or wishing the death hadn't been used in the story, or wishing the character could come back. All of that can be done respectfully, so there's nothing wrong with those things by themselves.
     
    Nor am I making fun of poor spelling. I just think this needs to be emphasized.
     
     
     
     
    In Other News
     
    Gimmicks entry coming soon, and don't forget the Pet Peeve Contest is open till November 29.
     
    Other news: My old bonesiii_topics website has been spiffed up a little to cut that hugo intro paragraph down and add contact info. (Plus the latest two topics.) That contact info is also now in the bones blog -- and you may notice my AIM name is now revealed there too. If you wanna talk to me that way (and for some strange reason I'm actually online), please feel free.
     
    And if you missed this topic of mine: Post Counts Are Not What Count, check it out, because it was almost a blog entry at one point in planning.
  25. bonesiii
    Reminder: The Pet Peeve Contest below is still open until November 29! Keep those entries a-comin!

    Notice: Keep in mind the award is drawn by me, so you need to tell me what to draw. Some of these Description form entries are very vague. You can't win if I don't at least have some idea of what you want the Peeve to look like.

    Update: We have constructed a submarine in order to more easily get from island to island as we hunt for those Pet Peeves you guys are telling us about. We've already captured a few from some winners, but there's plenty of need for more!

    After the contest, the submarine will be retrofitted for the search for the One Refresh to Rule Them All on the Bionicle planet's ocean floor. We're working on getting a contact among the Orcas for an interview so they can help us in the search.

    And there's a support banner to spread the word about this contest:



    [url="http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=39&showentry=21935"][img=http://www.majhost.com/gallery/bonesiii/BZPstuff/peevebnr.png][/url]

    Finally, check out the blog sidebars farther down; there's a new extensive bones_quotes collection, some geared towards humor, some more serious, and some new images and a Gallery of Galaxies.

    Question: I've been debating changing this blog name to something more interesting (with "Bones Blog" moved to the subtitle). Would that be a good idea? Bad idea? Would it depend? Any suggestions? So far I've got "Ethereal Skull" and "Orange Submarine" as brainstorms... But still not sure I wanna do that. Would it make the blog less recognizeable given that it's been called the "Bones Blog" for so long?
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