John Walker's Electronic House

Marking the two week anniversary of the London bombings of the 7th July, a series of small pretend explosions have been detonated on the capital’s tube network in honour of the tragedy’s victims.

Met Police chief Sir Ian Blair said, “It’s a delightful tribute”, adding that the entire transport network of London would be shut down as an act of respect.

“I was on the train to Warren St,” said commuter Tom Brimwell, “but I got off at the previous stop for some reason or other. I find when I get some smoke it my eyes it can sting quite badly – I’m just so glad I didn’t have to see that bag pop open a bit.”

A bus has even had its windows blown out, making sure that the road’s public transport isn’t forgotten in this special event, sponsored by Pack-a-Whack Backpacks. Members of the IRA, Al Quaeda and ETA joined Tony Blair and mayor Ken Livingstone for an informal meal, before going out for a dance.

A fifteen second silence is being organised for Monday lunchtime, 12.00 to 12.00.15.

Inspired by Stuart’s recent photographic spree, and then in turn by AK’s spoof, I’ve finally taken some pictures of the thing I walk past every day, and always mean to photograph.

Full size versions here.

I love these steps that disappear up alleyways on Walcot St.

And I love these ones too. There’s one more set to get today.

Then there’s this peculiar alcove that seems to have no reason to exist, but grows the most beautiful weeds.

And finally, there’s my favourite building – this mysteriously shaped and placed… thing, on Margaret’s Hill, just before my road.

City of Heroes, I love you.

I love you, and I won’t leave you… forever. It’s just, well, it’s just that I think we need to spend some time apart, for a while. It’s not you, honestly, really it’s not. It’s me. I just need some space, some room to find myself again, to put everything into perspective. I really honestly think it will be good for both of us.

Also, I think we should see other people during this time.

MANDELWATCH EXTRA!

My disturbing obsession with the Adrenaline Vault‘s most verbose hack, Bob Mandel, has been noted previously. His astonishing need to mention how he is no novice in every review he writes is peculiar and hilarious, and about a million examples of this are compiled here.

Which makes it all the more strange that he has recently written a feature on the (almost dead) Avault stating how good gamers are not necessarily good game reviewers.

From his new feature:

“Indeed, the dimension that bothers me the most about game reviews I read on the web or in print is the tendency of many reviewers to find a way to brag about their own prowess as they report on the title.”

And here are some quotes (amongst dozens and dozens) from Bob’s reviews, showing us how it should be done:

“BEYOND ATLANTIS

Beyond Atlantis is not an easy game, and I can easily see how some would get so frustrated they would just call it quits early on. In truth, this title is probably too difficult for those new to the adventure-puzzle genre. But for diehard adventure gamers, including myself, this offering provides a veritable cornucopia of some of the best and trickiest challenges I have encountered in a very long time. You need to have both great patience and a willingness to figure everything out without many signposts, but if this is the case you will be pleased as punch by what you encounter here.”

“DARKFALL

Although Dark Fall is nowhere near the most difficult virtual adventure I have played, it is clearly not designed for the casual gamer or the novice adventurer. It requires a level of patience, meticulous attention to detail, and perseverance well beyond what most are used to in computer recreations.”

“THE EGYPTIAN PROPHECY

The Egyptian Prophecy is one of the least challenging adventure titles I’ve played. What this means is that it’s perfect for novices, but also a bit below the capabilities of seasoned adventurers.”

“SCHIZM

Regardless, the unfortunate truth is that some novices to computer adventuring or those not used to puzzling would probably never make it all the way through, even with a complete walkthrough in front of them. However, for those of us who enjoy solving environmental puzzles, Schizm is a dream come true.”

I could go on.

I have absolutely no idea.

As has been previously noted, I’m not entirely put off by the idea of a game of City of Heroes. And if anyone has been paying attention to the game, they’ll have noticed that developers NCSoft are currently being sued by Marvel, after the comic behemoth decided that the in-game character designer allows players to infringe their copyright.

It’s quite an extraordinary accusation. NCSoft have built a simple but enormously versatile application that allows you to tailor your avatar to have just the sort of superhero look you’re after. For some (read: most), this offers the ability to generate a scantily clad buxom superheroine. For others it allows originality and creativity and a unique and/or remarkable look. And for others still, it lets them build something vaguely approximating to a favourite comic book hero. Marvel contest that this freedom encourages players to rip off their IP, and have called in their superlawyers.

But for all the sense this makes, Marvel might as well be suing Crayola for their wax crayons’ ability to render Spiderman on the lower part of the kitchen wall. It can only be a matter of time before they drag into court all manufacturers of paint, ink and plasticine.

Of course NCSoft have always been on the ball with regards to IP infringement, and hopefully this will be enough to see Marvel laughed at by the judge. An excellent article on Game Girl Advance explores quite how possible it is to create copyrighted characters, and more significantly discovers quite how quickly NCSoft removed them from the servers. And this set me thinking.

How versatile is the character generator? And quite how protective are Marvel? I decided to put their board of directors into the game.

Inhibited by a lack of photographs of most on the board, despite enormous amounts of research (clicking through the entire first page of results on Google), I was eventually left with two key players.

Superhero Name: Sid Ganis
Age: 64
Day Job: Marvel Director, President of Out of the Blue… Entertainment
Salary: N/A
Power: Chairs Academy Award dinners.

Superhero Name: Avi Arad
Age: 55
Day Job: Chairman and CEO of Marvel, Producer/Executive Producer on every Marvel film
Salary: $625,000
Power: Invents toys.

Brilliantly neither name was taken nor blocked by the game. So now they are there, living in Paragon City, and fighting crime along with the heroes they are attempting to sue. I will let you know how they fare.

Just a muse, maybe an introduction.

I’ve updated the They’re Back Archive to contain issues 128 and 129, as well as a couple of additions to the Reviews Archive.

Not much else to report.

I should probably feel like I should apologise for just sticking up CoH grabs, but I don’t.

Cheers Rich.