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Lit Literature member interviews

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Point Given , Jun 6, 2013.

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  1. Point Given

    Point Given Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 12, 2006
    10. What are your favorite movies outside of Star Wars?

    11. What are your favorite videogames, in and out of Star Wars?
     
  2. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    10. What are your favorite movies outside of Star Wars?

    My favorite movie of all time is Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's the perfect movie. The other original Indiana Jones movies are all up there, too. Sitting near the top are the films of Wes Anderson. The Royal Tenenbaums is his masterpiece, but I have to admit, The Life Aquatic just tickles my funnybone a little more. I love all his work, especially The Darjeeling Limited, which is sadly underrated. They're beautiful, cathartic, hilarious films. Other favorites include Christopher Nolan's films, especially his Bat-films (The Dark Knight Rises excepted, being the only disappointing film on his resume).

    More films: The Godfather Parts I and II. Part III is underrated, but it's still just okay rather than the masterpieces that the first two films are. Chinatown. L.A. Confidential. Pretty much anything with Paul Newman in it, especially The Hustler, Hud, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Cool Hand Luke, and Harper. Road to Perdition is pretty great too. I love pretty much anything with Bogart in it, too, especially Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and The Big Sleep. I love film noir in general -- The Third Man, Night and the City, In a Lonely Place . . . all the noir, I like it. Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The Lion in Winter. Becket. The Bourne Identity (the sequels go downhill). Raging Bull. Casino. The Departed. Warrior (fantastic movie. Fantastic). Glengarry Glen Ross. Unforgiven. Appaloosa. 3:10 to Yuma. Tombstone. Once Upon a Time in the West. I'll watch pretty much any Western.

    The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Adventures of Robin Hood. The Marvel movies (with the exception of The Incredible Hulk, which sucks) -- they're not really great works of art, but they're ridiculously fun entertainment. I love the Bond franchise, though it's more misses than hits -- the entire Craig run, Dr. No, From Russia with Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Licence to Kill, For Your Eyes Only, The Living Daylights, Goldfinger, and GoldenEye make up the hits. Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. The Fugitive.

    For comedy: In the Loop (hilarious). Anchorman. The Big Lebowski. Animal House. Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. In Bruges. Ghostbusters. Forgetting Sarah Marshall and I Love You, Man.

    I'm probably forgetting a bunch of movies I could cite just because I don't have them on my shelf to jog my memory. I really love film, and I've seen a lot of movies.

    11. What are your favorite videogames, in and out of Star Wars?

    I don't play as many games as I really could; it's such a damn expensive hobby that I tend to stick more with books and movies. I really don't keep up with even all the major releases. But I do have two non-Star Wars series I'm absolutely devoted to: Assassin's Creed and the Arkham Batman games. The Arkham games are incredibly well-designed, with fantastic combat systems, great writing, and amazing use of Batman's rogues gallery. I want my games to have a strong story -- I play for the story as much as the gameplay, which is why I don't play multiplayer at all -- and they do, plus great game design, great visual design, and general awesomeness. The Assassin's Creed games likewise have fantastic story (generally), incredibly fun gameplay, and a rich, deep universe that comes from great use of history and basically every conspiracy theory ever to create an insanely rich game world. I'm a sucker for history, and the games deliver. Plus Ezio is one of the best-developed leads of any franchise, with a fantastic arc through three games that matured him, took him to new places, and wrapped up his story and moved on. The Renaissance games, ACII and AC:B, are the highlight, with such a fantastic setting, a great main character, and strong story. The original AC is horribly underrated; its Holy Land setting was gorgeous, it handled the philosophy the best, and it's the only one so far to really capture the feel of being an Assassin by staging the assassinations as the centerpieces of the game, letting you build up to them and figure out your own approach where you've got a lot of options and a lot of freedom, and completely building the game around them. AC:R suffered from the weaker writing since Desilets left, with the frame story especially suffering but also the ancestor's story becoming less tightly plotted, but it was still gorgeous and fun, with incredibly refined gameplay, a fantastic city, and old Ezio. ACIII has been the weakest, but it's still underrated, with some great gameplay mechanics and a unique main character. The story and the limited depth of the sidequests were problems, though.

    I've also got to give a shout out to the Portal series, which is incredibly fun. I love that they turned physics puzzles into the core of a game. As a story guy, I also loved L.A. Noire. The gameplay wasn't much, but it was a perfect embodiment of an era I love, and it basically dropped me into an interactive film noir and played out a ton of great stories, and I loved that. Approach it as a gorgeous interactive movie, rather than GTA 1940s, and it's a tremendous experience. I was also big into Sim City and Civilization back in the day.

    As for Star Wars, I never had the joy of playing the X-wing/TIE Fighter games, which I deeply regret. My childhood belongs to the Jedi Knight/Dark Forces series. The modern games are fantastically fun and Kyle Katarn is awesome, but the nineties games are the absolute best. I miss that sort of level design and gameplay. Also, JK has an amazing story, the bestest vilains, and VIDEO CUTSCENES. MOHHHGAN KATAAHHHN! This dead man holds the Valley's location . . . VERRAY INTRIGUING!

    KOTOR is the other series that's up there. KOTOR II suffers from the release crunch, and both games would have been better off designing a few bigger, richer, deeper worlds rather than taking you through a bunch of small stuff, but oh my god they're so fun. KOTOR II's story is darker, richer, and deeper, and it has tremendous atmosphere and some great characters. But I have to admit, I'm a sucker for KOTOR, mostly because of nostalgia for that incredible experience of going through it the first time. Not the twist -- I had that spoiled, and who cares anyway -- but being plunged into a new era, finding my bearings aboard the Endar Spire, and then exploring Taris and finding so. much. to. do. in such a gorgeous location, with such great music, and such interesting characters . . . it was a completely otherworldly experience. And then on to Dantooine, just as beautiful, almost as deep . . . what a fantastic experience. Forget the twist; I remember conducting a trial on Manaan, fighting through the Vulkar base, saving farmers from Mandalorians, sorting out a murder, restoring Freyyr to power, discovering the Rakata computer on Kashyyyk, buying HK-47, romancing Bastila, listening to Canderous's stories . . . that's the game to me, and that's why I love it.

    Other favorite games include Republic Commando (endlessly replayable!), Rogue Squadron, the Starfighter games, the TPM game (pure nostalgia . . . I know it was not a triumph of design, myron . . . but it was hilarious), and I'm kind of a sucker for Empire at War, too.

    Also, I can't talk Star Wars video games without talking Force Commander, my original claim to fame. As the one person on the planet who had no trouble with the game's camera, I found the original game to be a blast as a kid. Commanding units in battle was ridiculously fun, and I bought into Brenn Tantor's story and the corner of the universe that it revealed. I was absurdly fond of that game and mastered its minutiae, so when I got on here and on the Wook, I got to be the one guy who knew all the stuff from Force Commander that no one else had paid attention to. I still love that game and consider it badly misjudged, and some day, some day, I will find a way to make it work and play it again. Because if I don't save Sarapin from those damn Rebels, who will?
     
  3. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    Those are some great movies. The ones I've seen, at least, which isn't that many of them, though pretty much all of them are movies I want to watch at some point.

    Also, gaming isn't that expensive of a hobby if you don't mind waiting to play the games after they've gone down in price. It's not a hobby I keep up with any more for just that reason (with rare exceptions; Mass Effect 3 and The Last of Us are the only games in recent memory that I purchased release date), but after a game has been out for a few months, it usually goes down to an affordable price. Games are as guilty as any other entertainment medium in being all about the "hot new thing", but in this case I feel those who wait are rewarded.

    I'm also surprised to see you didn't mention Red Dead Redemption. If you haven't played it, then you absolutely must. It's not that much of a time consumer if you choose to ignore Rockstar's usual plethora of time wasting side errands and mini games.
     
  4. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    I've played RDR, but I didn't think it was that great. It's fun, but the controls are clunky, the side missions are clunky time-wasters, and the vision of the West is boringly, juvenile-"maturely" predictable. It's very pretty, it's fun enough, it's got a passable story, but I feel like it had more potential than it actually delivered on, and the praise for it is ludicrously overblown.

    I've been meaning to pick up more games after the release date, but I just don't keep up with the industry as a whole well enough to have a big list of picks, and I'm still cheap, and it's still a big time commitment to play games. So I guess Dishonored is on my "maybe pick up sometime" list, and, uh, I dunno. Sleeping Dogs looked kind of interesting, but I never looked too deeply into it. Was that any good? I really ought to find a good single-player shooter sometime, too.
     
  5. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    I always liked how Joe Abercrombie expressed his admiration for the game. I particularly liked the "death of the Old West" angle it took; not so much a game about the setting, but about a character trying to escape it and being dragged back into it against his will as the world around him moves on. I also appreciated that we never really got a clear picture on what kind of person your character was before the game starts. That kind of thing is standard course for films, of course, but not something you see in games much. The controls are indeed annoying, as are the dull side quests, but by this point I consider those unfortunate staples of Rockstar games. Personally, it's my favorite Rockstar game, though I really loved LA Noire as well.

    I've only played a an hour or so of both Dishonored and Sleeping Dogs, but I was enjoying both of them. I liked the double agent angle that Sleeping Dogs had, something that I feel has lots of potential. It also has a very fun, Arkham-esque fighting system. And even from the small bit of Dishonored I tried, I liked how they weren't afraid to let the player think.

    As for good single-player shooters, I'd recommend Spec Ops: The Line, especially since you say story is as important as gameplay. It's basically a complete deconstruction of modern military shooters, and especially plays with the extreme violence and the tendency for these games to rack up body counts in the thousands. While saying it's the Watchmen of shooter games might be a little far, I don't believe it's that much of a stretch. The Last of Us is a god damn masterpiece as well, if you have a ps3 it's a must play.
     
  6. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Story is quite generic in most respects, but for making you feel like you're in a middle of a war zone and you will get your arse handed to you if you are not careful, Killzone 2 takes some beating as a shooter.
     
  7. The Loyal Imperial

    The Loyal Imperial Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2007
    Sleeping Dogs was alright for the price I got it for, which was about 99% off for a few minutes thanks to an error on Steam's part. The biggest issue I had with the game is that it's more ambitious than it is capable of realizing that ambition. It combines elements from a number of excellent games, but can't do any of them as well as the original. It can be good, but not great.

    Dishonored, on the other hand, is fantastic.
     
  8. krtmd

    krtmd Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    Well, while I would avoid discussing politics with you Havac, our favorite movie lists match almost word-for-word.

    This is a great thread Point Given - really enjoying it.
     
  9. blackmyron

    blackmyron Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 29, 2005
    I'm glad to be known here as "That guy who really hated the TPM game". :p

    But seriously, it's not so much the game itself, but what it represented - the death of Lucasarts. I bought the game without a second thought because it was a Star Wars Lucasarts game. Lucasarts is a big part of my computer game playing history, all the way back to Maniac Mansion, and TPM represents the day it was apparent that Lucasarts had changed completely.

    But you know what? I loved Force Commander too. Probably the only time that the Battle of Hoth came up in Star Wars game and I said, "Eh, I'm okay with this."
     
  10. Point Given

    Point Given Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 12, 2006
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  11. Point Given

    Point Given Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 12, 2006
    12. You've been a Lit Mod for over 5 years now. Do you think things have stayed the same or changed over time in the overall tenor of the forum? What about the Star Wars EU as a whole since you've been a mod?

    13. What's the funniest thing you've ever witnessed happen?
     
  12. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    It's a beautiful game and Marston's overall story is pretty impressive, but I didn't really find most of the stuff other than the story or the scenery that impressive -- it's a game that I'd kind of like to replay, but the parts I want to get to over again are so buried in subpar gameplay that I hesitate and return to more satisfying games instead.

    12. You've been a Lit Mod for over 5 years now. Do you think things have stayed the same or changed over time in the overall tenor of the forum? What about the Star Wars EU as a whole since you've been a mod?

    Well, things have definitely changed. The level of activity is a lot lower than when I got in, without the prequels to drive traffic and keep people into Star Wars. There's also the diminishing response to the work that's being put out in the last several years. I think the quality of the overall output has dropped, and you can see the dropoff in the number of people sticking with it. Even after the prequels were wrapped up, we had Legacy and KOTOR keeping people around, but with the comics weakening and the core post-ROTJ stuff turning into such a long quality drought, we've definitely lost people, and there's less enthusiasm among the ones who remain.

    On a more positive note, I feel like the general tone of the forum has improved interpersonally. There's less fighting, fewer giant-quotefest back-and-forths -- it feels like Lit has mellowed from some of the combativeness that we saw over Traviss, the NJO, LOTF, and just the franchise in general.

    As for the EU, I actually don't think it changed all that much since I became a mod, as I came on after the NJO. The quality of the post-NJO stuff hasn't improved. The comics have slipped since the glory days of KOTOR and Legacy, but not spectacularly far -- just back to an average of "good" rather than averaging "great" across the board. The non-mainline-story books have stayed about the same or maybe gotten a little better -- we're getting more spin-offs and standalones, and while they're not all great, I feel like we've been moving in a good direction in that regard. The post-NJO stuff is dragging the franchise down more through the collective weight of its lousiness building up rather than the lousiness getting distinctively worse, and it's looking like that death spiral is going to terminate in Episode VII, but outside that core of the franchise, the last six years haven't trended up or down distinctively.

    13. What's the funniest thing you've ever witnessed happen?

    I really don't know. I've seen plenty of funny things, but there's nothing that sticks out as the funniest thing ever, and anyway I don't want to tell the ones I can think of in public because they're too personally identifiable. :p I'm terrible at these kind of "quick, tell me something interesting" questions, because I never think anything's particularly worth telling. Whenever you've got those stupid, "Tell us something interesting about yourself" questions in college classes, I'm always like, "I DON'T KNOW I'M JUST A NORMAL PERSON OKAY. I DON'T SKATEBOARD UP MOUNT EVEREST OR WHATEVER YOU WANT TO HEAR, GO ASK GEORGE CLOONEY FOR STORIES." Like, ask somebody else what's interesting about me. I'm pretty used to myself by now.

    So, uh, ask me another question if you think this one was a waste.
     
    CT-867-5309 likes this.
  13. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2003
    ....You're not George Clooney? Dang. There goes my mental image of you then. I'll have to go refer back to Clint Eastwood or a Madman. Madmen man. Whatever they're called.
     
  14. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    Just . . . not Pete, okay?
     
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  15. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2003
    I dunno, all those Mad Guys look the same to me. I've only seen the commercials. Bunch of guys in suitcoats with the same slicked hair and tumblers.
     
  16. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    Pete is the one who's awful and hateable (yet sympathetic because he's so well-drawn and ultimately pathetic), rather than being awful yet likeable, like most of the other ones. Also, he kind of looks like a dweeb.

    [​IMG]

    Not his actor, though. Vincent Kartheiser is swell.

    [​IMG]

    LOOK AT THAT MUSTACHE.

    Also, WATCH MAD MEN.

    P.S. Pete Campbell gifs.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]

    P.P.S. Okay, sumbitch can Charleston and he's kind of adorably dorky, but he's still Pete Campbell. ANY OTHER MAD MAN.
     
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  17. krtmd

    krtmd Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    I generally don't care for a mustache w/o a beard, but it looks good on VK in that pic. He's so fantastic as Pete, who is so despicable most of the time, but still has a glimmer of something that makes him real and sympathetic.

    And WATCH MAD MEN.
     
  18. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    It's been in my Netflix queue for awhile.

    As a newbie in Lit who doesn't post much because, as I was told the other day, I'm about 14 years behind the rest of you :p --I've been pleasantly surprised at how nice and friendly this forum is; I had heard stories about hazing and infighting and have seen very little of that. So, kudos to you mod-types for maintaining the "good" atmosphere. :)
     
  19. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Beware, we will do this:



    To your bank account with recommendations of cool stuff! :D
     
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  20. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    Speaking of which, anakinfan, go read Saga.

    Havac - you do realize all those GIFs only make me more likely to picture you as Pete, right?
     
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  21. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Don't! It's rubbish!

    [​IMG]
     
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  22. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    I recommend Domovoi by Peter Bergting
     
  23. Point Given

    Point Given Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 12, 2006
    You're no fun!

    13. What are your favorite quotes? (Fictional/said by real people, etc.)

    14. What are your favorite alcoholic drinks? What's your favorite food?
     
  24. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    Instead of recalling the funniest thing you've ever witnessed, you could always talk about the dumbest thread you've ever had to lock. Just an idea :cool:
     
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  25. krtmd

    krtmd Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    ITA afs1983. I was a little intimidated to post here at first, since (as I admitted recently) I haven't read nearly all the EU that most in Lit have. But everyone is very welcoming and funny, so I stayed. And now I won't shut up, so they're probably sorry. :p
     
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