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kajnrig

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  1. kajnrig
    This is the... Hasegawa VF-31C box art? Or...?
  2. kajnrig
    They're not even a necessary evil. Loot boxes are, when you get down to their core concept, randomized rewards. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. It's when you start stipulating on the randomness that things get problematic, and especially so when you start "offering" the "choice" to pay real money to affect that randomness. Moreover, F2P games don't NEED loot boxes to make money; before loot boxes, there was in-game currency, and before that, there was microtransactions, and in all of these cases, the same problems existed: was the game gating off gameplay and gameplay advantages behind hidden paywalls? The problem has only been exacerbated in the transition from F2P games to "traditional" games, because now devs and publishers are demanding that you pay up front in order to even access these microtransaction-, loot box-, in-game currency-laden systems. It's layers upon layers upon layers of obfuscation to try and hide the fact that they're selling you an addiction. Overwatch makes you pay $60 up front, so you assume you're getting a full game, but then it locks costumes and other cosmetic items (which would have been unlockable items in a previous game) behind a paywall, but don't worry it's not a real paywall, just an in-game currency paywall, but you need loot boxes in order to get in-game currency, but don't worry you can get loot boxes through gameplay, except you can't get them nearly fast enough through gameplay to make the grind satisfying, but don't worry if you really really REALLY want loot boxes you can just pay a small $2-40 to get anywhere from two to an astounding FIFTY loot boxes, isn't that such a great value??? And that in itself is distasteful enough, but apparently the gaming community is totally fine with the practice because after all, it's only COSMETIC items - never mind that cosmetic items, even a limited number of them, have been included in the $60 purchase price of a game for decades now, so really gamers are saying that they're okay with paying full price for less content... but moving on. EA's big frakk-up here has apparently been to tie these loot boxes to tangible gameplay benefits. Gamers would apparently be fine with this money-grubbing, nefarious, greedy policy designed to target their most vulnerable and mentally ill members if only it didn't touch the precious precious gameplay. I'm being a twit about this, I know, but... only just. And yet they've still been profiting off of just game sales. Even on discounted game sales. Loot boxes, microtransactions, etc., aren't a way to make a profit, they're just there to make more profit. Your wish is my (or, well, the Belgian government's) command. https://gizmodo.com/belgian-gaming-commission-decides-battlefront-ii-style-1820663366 And apparently Hawaii agrees with the Belgians. ------ In unrelated news, I saw some demo gameplay of this game, Jack and Casie, and while I have some issues with it, I just spent a good two hours playing through it myself. It's really fun. It's already met its Kickstarter goal, but if you want to help it hit some of its stretch goals, that would be cool. It's basically if you take the attache case from RE4 and built an entire game around real-time managing it. And if you're anything like me, you've spent an inordinate amount of time managing your RE4 attache case. Myself, I'd like to be able to pause or slow down the gameplay from time to time, especially to give me time to read item details and dialogue and the like, but again, all in all, it was really fun.
  3. kajnrig
    Sounds about the right modus operandi. Also, isn't this based on the Mk. II 2.0? Does it really use so little of the Mk. II?
  4. kajnrig

    Bandai DX VF-31

    kajnrig replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    Speaking of which, is the Arad -31A's emblem different from his -31S emblem? I haven't taken a good enough look to know for sure. It'd be neat if it was something different.
  5. kajnrig
  6. kajnrig
    "Overseas for Justice League posted $185.5M, putting the global opening at $281.5M." They'll ultimately make a profit, but it's time to just completely reset the franchise, methinks. The casting is fine, but the world and story have been fundamentally flawed from the get-go, thanks in large part to too much Zack Snyder influence. He's just not a good narrative director, and too good a visual one.
  7. kajnrig

    Bandai DX VF-31

    kajnrig replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    Well you see, when a man loves a woman...
  8. kajnrig
    Thor wins by a landslide. And considering this is supposed to be the mother effin' Avengers super team-up movie of the DC universe, it getting trounced by arguably the least interesting of the Avengers is just... well, expected, at any rate. Ironically, the DC movies have much stronger leitmotifs than any of Marvel's individual superheroes, but when it comes to the big team up, Avengers trounces whatever was the theme here. I chalk it up to Snyder's directorial style. The generically sad music comes in when the generically sad scene calls for it, the happy music when the happy scene starts, and so on. Very Zack Snyder, very individually competent but narratively dead. The song that played during the "Superman is dead" montage at the beginning of the movie made my eyes roll. The chemistry comes and goes. It's steadiest with the Flash, just because the writers seem to have the firmest grasp of who they want him to be, but even then I wouldn't call it a success because it's so fitful. Agreed, that whole thing was terrible. The movie feels like a rehash of Suicide Squad, when each character needs to have their personal arcs systematically checked off. And I swear to god the movie acts like everyone in the DC universe has mommy issues. EVERYBODY in this movie has some sort of maternal trauma, it seems. Me, I obviously think the movie fails too many times more than it wins to be a success overall. Better than the 2-3/10 that Man of Steel/BvS/Suicide Squad were, but doesn't quite reach the 5/10 of Wonder Woman. 4/10, don't waste your time, go watch Thor instead.
  9. kajnrig
    Seems to be the most talked-about aspect of the movie, honestly. Friends convinced me to see it tomorrow morning, cheapo seats. (No way I'm paying full price to see this.) I have the lowest of expectations.
  10. kajnrig
    My sentiments as well.
  11. kajnrig
    Waiting on the extra scene as I write this. Enjoyable, but the dialogue was disappointing. Of all the Marvel universes, Thor needs a specific cadence to its dialogue, to how especially the main character speaks and acts. The first movie is still the best at getting this classical, mythic dialogue right, and even the second movie had its share of Shakespearean speech. This one was too Guardians of the Galaxy about it. Otherwise, really enjoyable movie.
  12. kajnrig
    Are you sure the waterslides aren't actually stickers? I haven't built the Red Frame, but Bandai doesn't often package waterslides with their kits.
  13. kajnrig
    Very nice colors. Did you strip everything and start from bare plastic? If so, where did you get the decals for all the markings? Or did you mask off areas and "just" paint over the original paint scheme? Either way, that's a really pretty design.
  14. kajnrig
    Whoops, my bad. Thanks for that.
  15. kajnrig
    If Bandai suddenly releases a MG Avalanche Exia Dash and it builds up exactly like the DM one, then those rumors from way back when that one of the bootleggers are actually Bandai incognito will suddenly gain some teeth... maybe. I dunno. It sure would be some conspicuous timing, at any rate. What I'm going to say might sound smart, but PLEASE wait for someone who actually knows what they're talking about. I'm just making assumptions based on vague memories of what others have said. Many grains of salt, please. Anyway, it's not so much that China doesn't respect international copyright law, it's that their legal system has historically sided with native Chinese groups over international ones without regard to strengths of case. Bandai either hasn't had a Chinese subsidiary until recent-ish, or said subsidiary hasn't had enough strength/desire to take these companies through Chinese courts. China's also begun to relax above nativist attitude in certain ways, in order to better attract international corporations. Giving Bandai a fairer legal shot at tackling bootleggers would certainly be of economic interest to both the Chinese government and Bandai. DM, not so much, but that's apparently a sacrifice the Chinese government are willing to make. I don't believe there's a premium figure at all of the 0 Gundam, much less a knockoff. There's probably a Robot Damashii figure, but I don't think there's a lot of RD bootlegging going on. Unless you're talking about the 00, in which case I'm sure there are PLENTY of knockoffs out there.
  16. kajnrig
    I don't know why you've worded that so gingerly. "A bit" too far? Too fast? They blew past too far from the get-go, all the way back in Dead Space 3. The moment they started giving people the "option" to pay real money for in-game currency, the AAA gaming industry became a perverse joke. Everyone's up in arms about Battlefront, meanwhile I'm here swimming in vindication for having abandoned the industry writ large long ago.
  17. kajnrig
    Done converting. I even managed to correct the mirrored lettering on some of the "NUNS" logos, and added detail to the emblems lost on the original stickers. I'll have to get some white decal paper, and a new inkjet/laser printer as well since the AIO I'm using to scan images can't print... :/ Then it's time to test these out, and if the results are good, I'll move onto tackling something more complex and relevant. I'd still like to learn how to make these using vector graphics instead (I mistakenly said "raster" images last post) so as to avoid aliasing and so I can resize stuff like the logos and emblems without losing any details. Still, this was fun. (Image at 1200ppi/dpi, reduce it as necessary to suit your printer.)
  18. kajnrig

    Bandai DX VF-31

    kajnrig replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    I wouldn't call the Reaper an evolution of the Jolly Roger, that's more fitting to Arad's ride(s). That's part of the reason why I dislike the J Kai, actually. I was already wary of the big fat emblem on the back when Frontier did it, and there it was smart enough to relegate it to only Ozma's 25S. Commanders getting specialized markings, that's fine. Messer... isn't a commander, he's just (ostensibly) really good at flying, and Hayate is even less qualified. There have been plenty of aces in Macross history that didn't get or "deserve" a fancy-pants personalized emblem. The emblem itself isn't even all that great, the paint scheme that goes with it is still off-putting as often as it is appealing... Bah. I'm being grumpy. Bit of both, I'd say. Hayate's the "hero" of the show, and they push hero merch because either those tend to sell better or they think those tend to sell better. And it's an exclusive because, yes, it almost assuredly would not sell well if they gave it the same mass production that they gave the J/F/C. This, on both statements. Given how many DX Valks are out there, they could even just repackage the VF-171 ordnance as a general purpose weapons pack, and they'd still rake in the dough.
  19. kajnrig
    I thought P-Bandai was "made to order," so to speak? Unlike the regular DX releases which are mass-produced and sold normally through retailers? With the VF-31A, my impression is that they're leaving the preorder window open for a certain amount of time (started August-ish and ending two weeks from now-ish), and once that closes they'll only be making enough toys to meet that demand (maybe plus some for redundancy's sake).
  20. kajnrig
    If this is a P-Bandai exclusive, shouldn't the preorder window be pretty generous? How is this situation different from, say, the VF-31A preorder, also a web exclusive, which is still open?
  21. kajnrig
    If the model kit's anything to go by, the articulating arm should have enough range so that the missiles can face up and slightly forward in all three modes, in either fore-to-aft (front-to-back) or port-to-starboard (side-to-side) configurations. (EDIT: Hm... maybe even be able to launch missiles downward from the stowed position?) That was some impressively fast work from start 'til now. Super looking forward to this. Speaking of the model kit, any intent to bring this to 1/72 scale?
  22. kajnrig
    OHHHH. Thanks very much, you two. Wow, the details are even worse on those stickers than I originally thought.
  23. kajnrig
    Would anyone who has one of these be willing to take close-up shots of the three diamonds on either side of the nose cone? I'm trying to convert the Mecha Colle kit's sticker sheet to a high-quality decal sheet, and the details on the sticker covering the nose are terrible. I have a feeling they're just innocuous sensors, but the RVF toy seems to have some white around there (or maybe its just the light). Anyway, I just wanted to be sure. Thanks for any help.
  24. kajnrig
    Oh yeah, I forgot all about that. Was too stuck on the PC/console talk.
  25. kajnrig
    Is it stated outright that they don't have a spoken language? Even so, not having a spoken language doesn't mean they don't have a language, and within that language a name for themselves, but your point still stands.
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