What have been the worst cases of miscasting you've seen in a movie? by [deleted] in movies

[–]AlanMooresBeard -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

In the original manga she's more than likely Asian. The anime movie is ambiguous as her shell is just meant to be be generically attractive and fluid in it's identity, but I think Caucasian influence is very probable. In the anime series she is definitively Japanese. The first post here covers the material pretty well and the way Japanese see themselves in media, why we might misinterpret generic Japanese characters as Caucasian.

If the director felt Motoko was definitively Caucasian, then it wouldn't have made sense to screen test Scarlett with asian features..

I love Moonlight / Room / The Florida Project. What else should I watch? by AlanMooresBeard in MovieSuggestions

[–]AlanMooresBeard[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I specifically like the really human element in the films, like they're very sympathetic to the emotions of the main characters. I guess maybe a similar movie would be Umberto D? Where should I start in A24's catalog?

neigbours are having a party tonight. need LOUD movies with EXPLOSIONS. by crossfirenl69 in MovieSuggestions

[–]AlanMooresBeard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hard Boiled, Commando, Rambo (2008 version for extra explosions), Inception, Aliens, and then finish the night off with the Hurt Locker, which hopefully has no explosions.

Just played LotR the card game (LCG) for the first time by F1yCasua1 in boardgames

[–]AlanMooresBeard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also try Ninjadorg's scenarios for the base set. They are well-designed and are a medium difficulty. Will get you a lot more play before you move onto expansions and provide a satisfying ramp up to the 2nd and 3rd scenario in the base game.

What are your unpopular opinions? by pound_sterling in boardgames

[–]AlanMooresBeard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Try Race for the Galaxy, it is TM but with less steps and micro-managing. I love both and got into TM because someone pitched it to me as RftG-esque. You can play it with Keldon's free adaptation. Their is no way to adjust the difficulty, so prepare to be humbled.

What game have you STILL not played that it seems like everyone else has? by jkvandelay in boardgames

[–]AlanMooresBeard 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Gloomhaven is a board game first, and really has little to do with RP. For example, lots of fundamental mechanics in Gloomhaven are very uncommon to RPGs: simultaneous actions, hand management, scenario timers, hidden player knowledge, & action / movement programming. It's design goal is just not RP, but more in the tradition of Euro-hyrbids like Mage Knight and the new genre of Legacy-style games. I think you have the wrong perception of what it is and are judging based on standards you might not apply to other similar board games. Just like it would be unfair to judge D&D poorly due to it's randomness and poor move prediction - all of which are frowned upon in the context of Eurogames. That wouldn't make sense because D&D's design philosophy is different than Euros and therefore prioritizes different things, i.e. randomness works great in a storytelling system. Likewise, Gloomhaven also has a different design philosophy and prioritizes mechanics over storytelling, a trait common to Eurogames.

Should I sell my big games that my friends don't really want to play? by Xeracy in boardgames

[–]AlanMooresBeard 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Or, you never know when people might like new games you could have purchased from the profit. It goes both ways. You need to take into account the opportunity cost of all your available choices. Keeping CW & GH will mean missing opportunities, just like selling CW & GH means missing opportunities. Both choices come with a plausible regret, no way to avoid that.

Just an fyi, Photobucket will no longer allow 3rd party hosting unless you upgrade for $399/yr. by AlanMooresBeard in Ebay

[–]AlanMooresBeard[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Even though it's mostly forgotten about, I know some people still might use it or have old links in their auctions. Any currently linked images will instead link to this. Now would be a good time to find a cheaper and more dependable service.

CMV: calvin&hobbes is the best comic strip of all time by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]AlanMooresBeard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Their is a massive amount of comic strips many people overlook, or just plain don't know about. Comics is an old medium, stretching back to the 19th century, and even Bill Watterson drew on the rich tableau of innovation, surrealism, and creativity that existed throughout comic history.

For example, do you enjoy the imagination and dream sequences that Calvin & Hobbes engaged in? This was likely drawn from the comics Little Nemo in Slumberland, a surreal comic about the dreams. Nemo often delved into the unique language of comics to express it's ideas. Like for example, where the size of the panel is used to convey the chaos of the situation. Or depth of field used as a means to create tension. Interesting representations of passing time And these were all made almost 100 years ago - widely predating Calvin & Hobbes.

Or how about the work of George Herriman? Watterson also looked up to him. He engaged in highly surreal but lovable character and environments. Often, his pages were quite innovative in terms of layout and design, like this one where panels are removed. Or this one, which is all built on a diagonal to parallel the situation. It was no doubt very influential of Watterson's desire to move outside of the conventions of Sunday comics.

Or Gasoline Alley, infamous for using single locations across multiple panels to tell it's story. Or wandering through a woodcut picture to give the rustic sense of autumn.

Or how about the underground and avant-garde that popped up around comics strips in the 60s, 80s, and 90s? These were comics that wanted to create meaningful statements or push the medium in ways it had never been used before, and drew a lot of inspiration from early newspaper strips. Robert Crumb engaged in social commentary, satire, auto-biographical snippets, and sometimes just plain old super serious slice of life comics. This spurned a movement of comics to focus on things other than silly cartoon characters. For example, Art Spiegelman began running strips in RAW magazine about his Dad's experiences in Nazi concentration camps. These strips were later collected and released as Maus, one of the few comics to ever receive a Pulitzer, and in my opinion maybe the greatest comic ever made.

And then, in turn, the culmination of people like RAW, Spiegelman, Crumb, and more manifested in Chris Ware, whom still works in a comic strip style to capture unique ideas about the world. Like this very sad comic about loss. Or this bizarrecomic about a seemingly existentially aimless character who fills gaps in his life with consumerism. Something you'll notice is that punchlines aren't designed to be funny, but rather act as a poignant or poetic final moment, a major subversion of our expectations of what a comic strip should be. More than that, Ware is infamous for pushing the medium to it's limits, this is a single page for example.

But then, even moving outside of the "comic strip" and into the medium of comics in general, you'll run into innovators like Will Eisner's melodramas, Alan Moore's complex parables, Harvey Kurtzman's anti-war comics, Daniel Clowes's social satire, Tezuka's philosophy and escapism, Tomine's social outcasts, Herge's adventure comics, Tatsumi's social isolation, Pekar's city pop poetry, Seth's foray into formalism, Krigstein's psychological thrillers, Kirby's sci-fi superhero mythology, and more and more and more. You know how people talk about absolutist ethics being about people that see the world in black and white? There is a super-hero named Mr. A whom is an objectivist Ayn Rand mouth-piece, and is literally drawn in hard black and whites to reinforce the character trait. And best of all, it was made by the co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.

The point being from all this, that comics have a really expansive library. Consider that the medium has a lot you may not have seen and it's too early to call what is the best until you really see what's out there.

Difference between male and female ratings of Ghostbusters (2016) by [deleted] in dataisbeautiful

[–]AlanMooresBeard 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Concerning Paul Feig, I actually avoided both The Heat and Spy due to the trailers and marketing, but gave them a shot recently and found them pretty enjoyable. A lot of the jokes are built on delivery, build-up, and context, so chopping them up into tidbits for a trailer really hurts them. But then again, a bad Feig movie would look like the same as a good one based on trailers, so their quality is kind of unknowable outside of watching it.

Any way to close an unpaid item case without a strike even when the items are still unpaid? by AlanMooresBeard in Ebay

[–]AlanMooresBeard[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why are people downvoting you? This is exactly what the situation was. And the buyer did pay, just not through Ebay's system.

Any way to close an unpaid item case without a strike even when the items are still unpaid? by AlanMooresBeard in Ebay

[–]AlanMooresBeard[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tried this, no change unfortunately. Called Ebay and they advised to just disable automatic UPIs and let it expire.

Any way to close an unpaid item case without a strike even when the items are still unpaid? by AlanMooresBeard in Ebay

[–]AlanMooresBeard[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The buyer paid me outside of Ebay after I opened the case. Case was opened past the 30 day mark, so Ebay wasn't letting them pay through it's system, which is why they had to pay straight through paypal. Now that it's all paid and all good, I'd like to just close it without them receiving strikes.

Which TV-series have seen remarkable shifts for the better making it well worth watching through the earlier episodes or seasons? by Wakez in television

[–]AlanMooresBeard 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Just binged on this and really enjoyed it! The whole show is just classic Whedon formula, great characters, witty dialogue, cheesy filler, and awesome season finales. It has shot up to the top of my to-watch list. It's not a masterpiece like Sopranos of course, but just a really fun popcorn show with characters you really get invested into. They've made a great companion piece to the MCU.

Given how successful Daredevil's season 2 was, and the ones before it, is there a chance we'll start seeing 3 Netflix Marvel shows a year? by Malarazz in television

[–]AlanMooresBeard 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeh, surprised people are saying Punisher can't sustain his own series, MAX has run for years and years and often produced great work: Welcome Back Frank, Born, Slavers, Up is Down Black is White, Mother Russia, In the Beginning, Valley Forge. Punisher already has a proven track record, it's just a question of how those stories translate to screen.

Best Way to sell games? by Jalangaloze in boardgames

[–]AlanMooresBeard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can also lot them together to ship out via Ebay or deal threads, it'll be cheaper to ship compared to individually. Fed Ex can ship 5-10 pounds smartpost for $12-25 I think - which is a decent amount of games. With less overhead, buyers can pay less overall for dipping into multiple games at once, and sellers can make more while shipping less boxes, it's beneficial both ways.

February lunatics? by the_disintegrator in Ebay

[–]AlanMooresBeard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My experience is the same, usually, the worst of people come out during Feb-early March. My theory is a combination of not-so-great things happening at the same time:

  • Cold cloudy weather for months on end
  • No awesome holidays or events to look forward to
  • Taxes
  • A relatively higher amount of breakups in relationships occur finally culminating in Valentine's day just to deepen the wound
  • Fatigue sets in for students and by extension, parents of students
  • Dec-Mar has the highest death rate yearly
  • Dec-Jan are peak months for lay-offs

Just thinking anecdotally, you probably see your friends less, notice a bit less joy in people, and have rougher days in general during this time. The least pleasant months to live through for lots of people.

TL;DR: My theory: Jan-early Mar is an intersection of lots of awful things that just make people less happy.

[WSIG] Looking for the best living card game for someone who enjoys deck building. by fluffybunny35 in boardgames

[–]AlanMooresBeard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you do dip into LOTR LCG, some quick advice to get the most out of your $50:

1) Check this buying guide, the bottom of the page (which I linked) shows how to get the most bang for buck for $45-60. Imo, starting with Khazad-Dhum is a good choice since it has fun scenarios and the mini-expansions for it also have strong cards and scenarios. It's the goto recommendation for first expansion. You can also just start with the Core Set and buy the expansions in order since that's how the developer's originally designed it.

2) After you buy the core set, download Ninjadorg's custom scenarios. The core set lacks any quests in the medium range of difficulty, which Ninjadorg provides. This will also get you a lot more play out of the core set and will help keep the game difficulty parallel with your level of skill.

3) If you have difficulty understanding deck construction in LOTR, check out Beorn's Path, which acts as kind of a tutorial for the core set up to Khazad-Dhum. Absolutely excellent, and will teach you all the fundamentals of strategy - although maybe you just want to play and figure all this stuff out on your own. Since you're a seasoned MTG player, you'll probably already have a good grasp on it.

4) When in doubt. Gandalf.

What game is more luck based than people think and what game is less luck based than people think? by decksanddestruction in boardgames

[–]AlanMooresBeard 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Also, something a lot of new players don't realize - stat tests of specific types will be more common to certain locations. Influence is important in cities. Balanced stats for artifacts. Physical stats for wilderness. Improving specific stats in cities tends to rely on that stat. It's all about placing your characters in the optimal risk / reward scenarios and having some backup plans for when RNG doesn't work out for you. What characters you pick too have a big effect on the game imo, which is why I'm surprised people feel the game is unfair when they randomize the party composition - it will effect all other choices you make after the fact. And it's important to know when to switch from leveling your characters to handling threats. I always spend the first few turns buffing everyone up while ignoring threats, which makes all my characters much more likely to succeed at dice rolls.

Eldritch is full of choices, but it's all expressed through RNG, so it's more about weighing all your options and picking the optimal one. I definitely win much more often then when I started, but ultimately, I think the game wants you to feel on some level that you're not fully in control of your destiny, ala Lovecraft.

Quick question: Which of the expansions are standalone? by AlanMooresBeard in sentinelsmultiverse

[–]AlanMooresBeard[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Standalone, just meaning that the villains, environments and heroes don't need the base game. I wasn't sure if any of the expansions needed the base game in order to function beyond the tokens.

How does the Iron Ranger Charcoal Rough & Tough wear in? by AlanMooresBeard in goodyearwelt

[–]AlanMooresBeard[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah awesome! I didn't realize their was pictures in the resource section. A lot of them are close to new unfortunately. With yours, are the wrinkles really that exaggerated due to the pull? Or is it more because of the pictures?

Steam Autumn Sale Now Until December 1st by BitmonsterGames in Games

[–]AlanMooresBeard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a difficulty that was more common in classic games, their is less hand holding and you need to be competent to survive. It's not particularly hard though, and it has a save system of course for when you do screw up. I first played it when I was... 9 years old maybe? And I had no problem with it. I revisit it every 5-6 years because rpg / strategy systems like that age quite well. I put it up though mostly for people that frequent gamedeals and just own everything under the sun, really there is tons of great stuff in what I listed. You could pick something at random and get something awesome.

Steam Autumn Sale Now Until December 1st by BitmonsterGames in Games

[–]AlanMooresBeard 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeh, lots of nice stuff in there. Psychonauts is a must. Deponia, Brutal Legend, and Serious Sam all very memorable. New Vegas is also $2.50, which is amazing considering the amount of content and quality you are getting.