Tag Archives: sci-fi

Not a Lot Going On (Except Blizzard Messing with Us)

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Not a Lot Going On in Sci-fi and Fantasy:

I spent a good 20 minutes today, plus a lot of time yesterday, wracking my brain for something to put on my blog, and it occurred to me that I just don’t have much to say.

Now, if you’re someone who knows me well, you’ll know that this is not an affliction I often suffer from. The problem is that this blog is intended to be devoted to all things science fiction and fantasy, and there just doesn’t seem to be much going on in those genres lately.

Sci-fi TV shows are getting cancelled left, right, and center. Sci-fi’s never really been known for providing break-out hits on TV, but lately, it seems to be suffering worse than ever. Of the shows I watch, only Sanctuary remains.

Even the great franchises of science fiction seem to be decaying. Star Trek has crashed and burned (creatively, if not financially) under JJ Abrams, Robert Orci, and Alex Kurtzman. Battlestar Galactica is slowly fading into twilight, with all its hopes pinned on the prequel Blood and Chrome. Yes, another prequel, right after the last prequel (Caprica) that had a much more creative concept and still only managed to last a season. Even the mighty Stargate franchise has crumbled following the cancellation of the woefully underestimated Stargate: Universe.

There are still good sci-fi and fantasy movies being made, but honestly, I can’t remember the last time one truly blew me away–probably The Dark Knight, and that was more psychological horror than sci-fi.

Even books don’t seem to offer much these days, though that may just be bad luck on my part. Still, whatever the reason, it’s been a very long time since I picked up a new book by an unfamiliar author and was impressed. It’s at the point now where I have a lot of trouble even finding the motivation to try new books.

Interestingly, the one medium where speculative fiction seems to be thriving both creatively and fiscally seems to video games. A lack of disposable income and my obsession with WoW mean I haven’t been able to experience all games have to offer, but I keep up with current events to know that sci-fi and fantasy games are thriving.

What do you think? Am I just closed-minded or missing out on the good speculative fiction that is out there? Or are we really in a drought?

Speaking of video games…

Blizzard Messes with Our Minds:

There is one little piece of news I do have to share. Blizzard has quite dramatically released a Warcraft screen shot. And that’s it. Just a screenshot.As you can see, we have three Ethereals in a shop in what looks like Stormwind. One is an arcane reforger, a service which already exists in WoW. But the others’ titles are more confusing.

Of course, this has sparked a completely absurd level of speculation from the fans. Some have even started making anagrams out of the NPCs’ names to prove their own pet conspiracy ideas. However, two theories have come to the forefront:

1: Ethereals are going to be a playable race. This is possible, though it is somewhat unlikely they’d be leaking info about the next expansion so soon, and they’re never going to add new races in a patch.

2: This is an indication that Blizzard with finally be adding some version of the “appearance tab” idea to World of Warcraft, a way to customize the appearance of one’s gear.

I’m inclined to believe option two, myself. It’s something that could be added in the next patch, and everyone’s been begging for it forever.

Plus, there’s a certain logic to the grouping of NPCs. Void storage = a place to store out of date gear. Transmogrifier = a way to give your new gear the models of your old gear in void storage. Arcane reforger = we already know is a way to customize the stats on your gear. Together, they make a full battery of gear customization options.

If nothing else, we have learned several interesting things from reading the thread on their official forums. 1: It takes nothing at all to set off a typhoon of rampant, tinfoil-wearing speculation. 2: A shockingly high number of people don’t know that an arcane reforger is something that’s been in the game for nearly a year. 3: Transmogrify is actually a real word. Who knew?  4: Blizzard takes way too much pleasure in screwing with us like this.

Review: Source Code and a WoW Rant

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Review: Source Code:

So I recently rented the sci-fi time travel thriller, Source Code. I’d heard a lot of good things about it, but it didn’t quite live up to expectations.

Now, don’t get me wrong. This was a good movie. But it wasn’t as good as it could have been.

Source Code follows a soldier–Coulter Stevens, ably played by Jake Gyllenhaal–who mysteriously awakens in a time machine, where he is forced to repeatedly take over the life of a man who died in a train bombing. His mission is to discover the bomber’s identity before he can strike again, which is complicated by his becoming attached to Christine–a women who also died on the train–and the obvious stress of repeatedly dying in the explosion.

The movie does stumble out of the gate with the pseudo science behind the time machine, which is so ridiculous it makes me pine for Star Trek technobabble. Basically, the idea as I understand it is that you can plug someone’s brain into a dead guy’s brain and thus create a magic time portal to an alternate universe.

The other main issue with this movie is that it is not nearly as long as it should have been. This is a very complex and intriguing story, and cramming it into 90 minutes made it feel quite rushed. I didn’t feel as much regret over Christine’s inevitable and repeated deaths or as much of the pain of Coulter living through that horror again and again as I should have.

But I’m being more harsh than the movie deserves. This is a very good premise, and there are some pretty good twists. The acting is good all around. The ending is a little too neat and tidy for my tastes, but also very enjoyable in some ways–I can’t be more specific without getting into major spoiler territory.

One surprise pleasure of the movie is the interactions between Coulter and Goodwin, the woman operating his time machine. Goodwin begins the movie as a very cold and mechanical-seeming character, but as time goes on and she bears witness to more of Coulter’s trials–well, you’ll see. It’s an interesting progression.

When you get down to it, Source Code is a good movie; it’s just that it could have been a brilliant movie with a few small tweaks.

Overall rating: 7.9/10

Rant:

I originally intended to devote this entry entirely to my Source Code review and my graphics, but my recent trials in World of Warcraft have required me to vent.

There seems to be something about leading a raid that robs people of all humanity and decency. I’ve always known this, but lately, the problem seems to be getting worse.

Half the time when you whisp someone who posts a looking for more message in Trade, they just ignore you. I can’t comprehend the immense rudeness that allows people to do this–on the rare occasions I’m a raid leader or assist, I respond to every single whisper I get–but that’s not the worst of it.

A few nights ago, someone asked for a ranged DPS for Cho’gall. I asked if a rogue would be acceptable–probably a stupid question, granted, but all they have to do is say no. But apparently this was a grievous insult on my part, because the raid leader only responded to call me a troll.

Then today I spotted someone LFM for a Nefarian raid. Lately I’ve been having trouble with people who say “LFM” when they mean “LFG,” so I asked how many people he already had–not a step I normally bother with, but I was short for time and didn’t want to wait on finding eight more people. But I guess this is a no no, since he got snippy and refused to tell me. I let my anger get the better of me and made a somewhat snide comment in Trade about how he would get more people for his raid if he answered questions, and proceeded to get insults heaped on me from many more players. My ignore list, once seldom touched, is growing quite large as of late.

Ignored, badgered, and insulted. This is why I will never join a raiding guild. I enjoy raiding, but the culture it creates is abysmal–second only to PvPers in awfulness.