Theescapist 093.Pdf

his ruined eye (a peeled grape), touched boarding luxury liners, stealing whatever pretend, still fun to put on the eye patch his exposed brains (bowl of spaghetti) isn’t nailed down and occasionally taking and drink grog, fondle the wenches and and shook his cold, lifeless hand (Mr. hostages. And that’s not the only form of order the lubbers off the plank. And the We were all wearing eye patches, there Kingston’s ice-cooled hand in a glove). piracy alive and well in the 21st century. issue of digital piracy is one that won’t were toucans, and we were all singing. After the treasure hunt, Amy Claire’s Digital pirates are far more numerous be settled overnight. Even the toucans joined in. Amy Claire award-winning fondue and a round of “Pin and claim residence on almost every Kingston’s 12th birthday party may not the Tail on the Pirate” (and more grog), it shore, downloading bootleg copies of In Issue 93 of The Escapist, Mur Lafferty have been in the Caribbean, nor on a was time to go home, although we all songs, movies and games without paying wonders whether pirates are an idea sailing vessel, but for a day we were all wore our eye patches out the door and, in a doubloon to the proper rights holders. past their prime, Allen Varney and pirates and she, our pirate queen. my case, for several hours afterwards. Shannon Drake interview men who are Few of us haven’t dreamed of sailing the living their own pirate dreams, and The toucans were actually cockatiels or We know a lot about the life of pirates on seven seas in a stolen ship, casting off making games in which you can do the some such domestic bird, but they the Spanish Main, and it wasn’t always all bonds of lawfulness and responsibility same, John Holowach looks at the Digital played their parts well. There was grog as much fun as Amy Claire’s birthday to be the captain of a merry band of Rights Management (DRM) debate from of a sorts (Hawaiian punch mixed with party, nor as romantic as the stories we pirates, seeking romance and adventure the consumer’s point of view and club soda), booty (chocolate coins see on TV and in the movies, but nothing wherever the wind may take us. Leonardo Pose shares his amazing story wrapped in gold foil) and an honest to ever is. We know that most pirates were Likewise, few of us haven’t downloaded of third world game piracy. Davy Jones treasure hunt in the back murderers, rapists and thieves, and that a song, copied a movie or bootlegged a yard. We were each given a map and aside from the act of stealing a ship in game, taking our enjoyment without We hope you enjoy the voyage, and please, tasked with charting a course around the first place (a crime punishable by paying for the privilege. But most of us no wenching on the poop deck. Yarr! elephant ear plants, monkey grass and death) most had records as long as their realize this is nothing but a dream. That the big elm in the corner to find the wooden legs, and lived brutal, short and the first star on the right will always be giant X marked on the map, under which miserable lives, often dying as they lived farther away than we can sail and that (we hoped) would lay every pirate’s by - the cutlass, pistol or cannon, if they the X, more often than not, marks an dream: a sunken chest. weren’t captured and hanged first. empty hole in the ground. We realize that rules also apply to us, that stealing Amy Claire’s father escorted us below We also know that piracy on the high isn’t a victimless crime and that the decks three by three, where we, seas didn’t cease with the conquering of merry band of pirates will be just as likely blindfolded, met with The Old Pirate The New World; that it, in fact, continues to slit your throat as any one else’s. To The Editor: Ghost. He told us the tale of how he lost to this day. Armed gunmen aboard Superior media regularly wash out his leg and his life fighting a Spanish stolen yachts and cigarette boats patrol Being a pirate, in real life, isn’t all it’s because of a mismatch with the Frigate off of Hispaniola. We each held the waters off the African coast, cracked up to be, but it’s still fun to consumer. Not just media varieties, but forms of expression. To coin a term, I’ll his “No World Order” disc. (At the bottom Railroads and Worlds go through Warfare call it the Coltrane-Betamax Effect. John of the letter I have a link and quote from and Civilizations rise and fall and whole Coltrane pioneered, with a few others the Wikipedia article covering this.) Second lives go to hell in a handbasket. such as Miles Davis, the late sixties/early seventies over-the-top innovations in Closer to our resident Visigoth Gamer is So I love a good story. I love to tell free jazz, perhaps bounded by Coltrane’s the “wild” proposals by Scott McCloud, good stories. I’ve got the content, at OM disc, Pharoah Sanders’s work at the who details the (in the words of his least as much, by golly, as that Frank time, Ornett Coleman & the Art Inst. of newest book Making Comics) Miller fellow with his 300 fallen heroes at Chicago’s music, and Davis’s Bitches “Storytelling Secrets of comics, Manga Thermopylae. I’ve got metaphysics and Brew. Yet, as was observed at the time, and Graphic Novels.” There are many history and the extremes of world this superior and inventive pioneering of many new ways of telling stories, as thought and culture coming out the forms did not have a mass audience McCloud notes. wazoo. But as Kang (wonderful name waiting at the station to greet them with for a gamer!) points out, there is a cheers. I would say that it’s only been a I for one am largely persuaded by the missing audience--of which I am among strange historical accident that an likes of Vincent Kang and Scott McCloud. the missing, ironically. audience has been growing up to it over I’m primarily an educator and a the past 40 years (e.g., Ornett Coleman philosopher, deeply committed to Blame it on the Coltrane-Betamax Effect. could get a Lifetime Achievement award adjective-burdened lyrical texts, but in from Grammy). love with comics, and excited by the - Bruce C. Meyer possibilities of what Kang describes. The Betamax part of the effect hardly In response to “I’d Rather Play a needs elaborating. Often hailed as a But--and here’s the rub, as the immortal Game Than Read A Book” from The superior technology, it failed because of Bard of Avon would say--I’ve never been Escapist Forum: This opinion piece is a accidents of marketing, etc., not because able to “save the princess.” Having new low for unsubstantiated ranting at the of the qualities of the product. introduced my formerly eleven year old Escapist. At least it was mercifully short. son to Super Mario II and Duck Hunt, I One of the first musical products using have seen him turn into a Linux software Because visual media are so different CD-ROM technologies to explore creative engineer professional. But I was never from textual ones, there’s no point in ends was the “failed” work of Todd able to guide Luigi through the maze, comparing them. It comes down to Lundgren of CDi for Phillips, particularly and have stood by and watched Sim personal taste, which is the only argument that the author puts forth. He series Discworld. Where the characters in most story-led games can’t either. Too know people that, through the tragedy of likes video games more, therefore video and locations in Discworld are often full often do games seem robotic and forced, having a friend or loved one die, have games are better. That’s the kind of of life and charm, Oblivion’s are mostly and this is partly to do with technical discovered things they never knew and opinion one would expect a grade 2 forgettable. True, Oblivion has a lot of limitations and also to do with the lack of people they’d never met before. Having student to have. I expect better from a things going for it, and the painting imagination that goes into titles. someone who knows them from a paid writer. quest was excellent, but these only different perspective is amazingly stand out because of the limited supply - drunkymonkey refreshing in such times of pain, and - arrr_matey of other *gasp* events. Aeris’ death in deep, lasting friendships have been Final Fantasy is constantly talked about In response to “Strangers in a forged by people that otherwise may In response to “I’d Rather Play a because it has very few peers. There are Strange Land” from The Escapist Game Than Read A Book” from The very few games that you can compare to Forum: It’s a shame there’s no way to Escapist Forum: The comparison was books - Final Fantasy, Monkey Island, expose her to any kids who’ve grown up between “a critically acclaimed” and perhaps Half Life 2 being noticeable with gaming parents. My wife and I are videogame, and a “universally loved” examples, but even games that have both gamers and our kids have gained novel.

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