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I promised to write an opinion article this month, but my deadline is looming and I can't think of any one thing to really get hot and bothered about, so I shall write several mini-rants.
- The d20 system must be stopped!!!
Every time I go to the gaming shop, I see another game that has been adapted to the d20 rules. Now, don't get me wrong... I don't hate the d20 system, I like playing D&D 3rd Ed, I've found that the d20 system is easy to teach to my friends, and I don't blame the creators of NEW GAMES for wanting to use a preexisting, popular numbers system. But I do mind seeing the gaming world lose its diversity as more and more games bring out d20 systems.
- Character sheets are hard to copy :P
Have you ever tried to copy a character sheet from a roleplaying book? They always come out crooked, with the inside edge all faded and indistinct because it's curling in towards the binding. Ugh. I think that character sheets should be perforated so you can just pull it out and lay it on the copy machine or scanner. Also game designers need to be more attentive when they design a character sheet. The old EarthDawn character sheet only has space for 8 spells!
- Anime is not "just cartoons".
Ugh, anytime someone starts a discussion about anime on a message board, someone else has to come in and dismiss it as "just cartoons" or "kid's stuff". Clearly these people have never watched a decent anime, and have probably only been exposed to Dragon Ball Z and the American version of Sailor Moon. Now granted, there is a lot of crappy anime out there, but basing your opinion of an entire genre on your experience with watered-down examples of it is a lot like basing your opinion of comic books on a few issues of Donald Duck.
- People who cheat on MMORPGs are low-lifes who deserve to be flogged.
On the player-run UO shard that I am very active on, we've recently had a rash of cheaters, exploiters, and house looters. These people go out of their way to find new ways to cheat honest players out of their hard-earned items, get skills and stats easily, and generally wreck the game. At the same time, the volunteer staff has their time taken up by tracking these jerks down, so they don't have time to do their usual fun things for the players.
- Comic creators who do free sketches at cons ROCK!
Yes, on a positive note, my brother spent a half hour in line to get me a sketch of Junpei the 1337 Ninja by Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo fame. YAAAAAAAAY! I can't wait to frame it and hang it over my desk! So, for each and every creator who was at Comic Con doing free sketches for your adoring fans, even the ones who couldn't make it and sent their relatives to get them instead, THANK YOU!
- German music is weird!
My husband and I have a friend named Nic (hi Nic!). Nic really likes German music and he shares it with us (remember kids, it's legal to make copies of your music to share with your friends. The RIAA cannot get me!). Some of it makes me threaten Nic's life. Especially the stuff that sounds like a cross between Old MacDonald and the Smurfs, in German *shudders* On the other hand, we were listening to In Extremo (actually, we are as I'm writing this, too) and we started wondering... what are they singing? So we went to their website and looked up their lyrics. Almost all of the songs we have are old folk songs, spells, poems, etc, set to heavy metal, accented by bagpipes. If that's not weird, I don't know what is.
- EARTHDAWN IS THE BEST FREAKING RPG EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!
That one was just for you, Cris. And this time I'm making sure no one puts an H in your name.
- Being a professional op-ed writer must be tough.
I've run out of rants for now :P
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