Guest posts by Astrocyte

121

Game Suggestions and Feedback / Re: [Poll] Do ultra-rares add or detract from elements?

« on: June 11, 2011, 03:07:59 am »

'Nymph Immolation'.

OFF-TOPIC
May I suggest: "Nympholation"


(if not for a deck name, then for a band name or an album name)

122

Random, Normal and Elder / Does anyone actually play AI1 or 2 after the tutorial?

« on: June 11, 2011, 03:03:29 am »

Just curious.

123

Literary Arts / Re: Writing Exercises

« on: June 11, 2011, 03:00:04 am »

(Last one I remember tonight)

Pairs
(You need at least two people)

Number a list from 1 to 5. Number a second list from 1 to 5.
Put 5 adjectives in the first list. Put 5 nouns in the second list.

Trade your adjectives with someone else's adjectives, OR trade your nouns with someone else's nouns.
Match their #1 with your #1, etc.

Think about each pair and what it might mean. Talk about it too, if you'd like. Whichever one you like best or find most interesting, write something about it or write something using it.

Another (harder) way to do it: Use adverbs and verbs instead of adjectives and nouns.

124

Literary Arts / Re: Writing Exercises

« on: June 11, 2011, 02:55:14 am »

The Phone Book

(I originally did this exercise back when people actually used phone books, haha... If you don't have a phone book, try to find a list of names of people you don't know and who aren't celebrities. Maybe a complete list of movie credits from IMDB (go down toward the bottom), or your job's phone directory, or something.)

Pick a name at random.

Based on the name alone, imagine the person. Write about it.

Done already? Pick another one, imagine that person, and write about him or her interacting with the first person.

125

Literary Arts / Re: Writing Exercises

« on: June 11, 2011, 02:49:44 am »

People and Places

Think of, or randomly choose, or get a friend to choose a type of person. The "type" can be a profession or job, an attribute (angry person, rich person, tall person), or anything else you would use to classify a person.

Think of, or randomly choose, or get a friend to choose a place. It can be a very specific place, a general type of place ("a city" or "a store"), a type of climate, a geographic place, whatever comes to mind as a "place."

Write about that person in that place.

126

General Discussion / Re: i am almost ashamed of the kongregate community right now

« on: June 11, 2011, 02:23:01 am »

As I said earlier, I actually pretty much get all the money I need for PvP Events from Oracle.

The rares you need to grind for though, but if you don't care for score you can selective farm grind and get them in one or two sittings depending on what farms are up.

Also, if you're in a team event (War, Draft, TPvP, etc.), there's a good chance that at least one of your teammates is able to stay on T50 for a while and can put up farms for you.

Both true. You need to be aware of farms, though (before I discovered the forums, whenever I stumbled on a farm in T50 I thought the game was messed up and reloaded  )... and on the forums so you can play team events, and a good/reputable enough player already that someone in T50 wants you on their team.

But I know I'm starting to sound like I'm nitpicking and repeating myself now, so I'll be quiet for a while.

127

Literary Arts / Re: Writing Exercises

« on: June 11, 2011, 02:12:46 am »

The First Line

There are two ways to do this exercise.

1. Take the first sentence from a book (preferably one you haven't read, so that you're not biased by that book's story). Start a story with that sentence.

2. Get a friend to write a sentence, any sentence. Start a story with that sentence.

128

Literary Arts / Writing Exercises

« on: June 11, 2011, 02:03:39 am »

ITT we post creative writing exercises.
Writing is circular -- the more you write, the more you want to write! Sometimes inspiration hits you, and sometimes you need a little something to draw out the inspiration. That's where creative writing exercises come in.
Post whatever exercises you use to help you write, or exercises you'd like to try.
Maybe if people really like one, we can do it as a community (start a new thread and post what we come up with).

(My story? Years ago, I used to love to write all kinds of things. I have just gotten back into writing after a 7 year dry spell, and I'm going to try doing at least one exercise a week, and work up to doing at least one every other day.)

129

Multilingual / Re: Questions about English?

« on: June 11, 2011, 01:54:07 am »

Someone PMed me today about an English idiom, so I'll share here.

"go to [his/her/my/your] head"


This can actually have three meanings. (Yes, English idioms are difficult!)

1) In the comic book movies thread, I used it to mean that something caused a person to become unusually arrogant or egotistical.
Examples:
"His success went to his head." = After his success, he became really arrogant
"Don't let it go to your head." = Don't get overconfident or arrogant because of it (whatever "it" is)

2) Something strongly affected a person, causing them to change their behavior unexpectedly. This meaning usually implies that the change is negative or bad; it's sometimes used when the change is positive or good, but rarely.
Examples:
"Seeing that accident must have gone to her head." = She's been acting differently since she saw the accident
"Don't let it go to your head." = Don't let it bother you, don't get too upset about it (tricky! You have to pay attention to the context to know which meaning is correct.)

3) The last meaning is used specifically with medicine, drugs or alcohol. It means that the medicine/drug/alcohol affected you very strongly.
"That drink went to my head." = I'm more drunk than I thought I would be after having that drink


If it would help anyone to see incorrect examples of this idiom, let me know and I'll try to come up with some.

130

Movies & TV / Re: Comic Book Movies

« on: June 11, 2011, 01:34:34 am »

Sin City is my favorite comic book movie, hands down! I could watch that movie a million times, it was just so freaking well done. Shame that it went to Robert Rodriguez's head, though.

What do you mean?

After the success of Sin City, instead of going straight into Sin City 2 and 3 (which would've been guaranteed hits if they were even half the quality of the first one), he immediately charged into a bunch of pet projects. Only a few of these actually got finished, only one made any money, and he got himself a nasty reputation with studios for being a jerk (e.g., he was all set for preproduction on his Barbarella and Red Sonja pitches until he refused to let anyone but his then-girlfriend Rose McGowan star in BOTH of them).

131

Humor / Re: 1950 things Mr.Welch is no longer allowed to do while roleplaying

« on: June 11, 2011, 01:16:30 am »

I maintain that 279 and 1088 are bad calls on the DM's part. Elf characters are immensely improved when they're based on Prime Ministers. And large blunt objects are a perfectly good way to handle kobolds and kender (and kobolds and kender players). Not always reliable vs. Malkavians (and their players) though.

132

General Discussion / Re: i am almost ashamed of the kongregate community right now

« on: June 11, 2011, 01:09:17 am »

However, what is more fun is competitive PvP, which is mostly unupgraded and requires almost no grinding time.
So I'm really not sure why you think grinding is an important part of Elements. It isn't unless you want it to be.

If you're just talking about straight PvP1, yeah, you don't need much to get going.

If you're talking about tournaments, league, events, and War -- the trouble is that to be competitive in most of these (and to even participate in a lot of them), you need to have most or all of the unupped cards and a sizeable collection of rares. If you've got enough cards for a few decks and a scattered assortment of rares, you're not going to be able to do much. And how do you get more money (to buy cards) and rares?... You grind.  :/