Movies

A Conjuring Beyond the Mountain

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David Lynch’s 1984 cult classic Dune is a flawed and fascinating movie that managed to capture my imagination while confusing the hell out of me decades ago. Other than the flawed SyFy Channel miniseries and some video games adapting Frank Herbert’s books. Who would have thought that my coincidental discovery of the topic of director Frank Pavich’s recent documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune would occur after a random balmy midnight screening at The IFC Center in Manhattan?

Two Weird Ideas for MMOs

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There’s no conversation more boring than the one that hashes out what’s wrong with massively multiplayer online games. Everybody has an opinion, based mostly on having played one or two or a shit-ton. I tend to take these game design critiques with a dump truck of salt. Gamers only know what they want. And often that desire is what makes the game fun. Designers, on the other hand, I am terribly interested in how they think they can save the MMO. Back in 2007, I went to a conference for independent MMO designers. I was somewhat amazed to meet a

Wallflower’s Curse

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It’s a shame that women can’t go to conventions without being harassed in this day and age. The idea of a lady going to SDCC in a Batman t-shirt to seem “cool” has been thoroughly debunked by people smarter than me, so I won’t dwell on it here. But geek culture didn’t come up with this blatantly misogynistic stereotype because it inherently hates women. Have you read anything Gail Simone’s ever written? Do you watch Tara Long’s stuff over at Revision3? Women and nerdy things combine pretty well, as it turns out.