ShardWarrior

Of course it depends on the individual. Your preferences are true for you, but not universally so. Just as you dislike the fantasy genre and PvP, there are a great many players who absolutely love them. Again, this is an aged game on a very aged engine being run by a volunteer group. It does not offer a lot of mechanics and QoL things players are accustomed to. I cannot speak to the other games you mentioned, but I do play STO regularly. Lootboxes there are very easily ignored. You are not required to open them in order to progress in the game. It is also getting continual development and (for better or for worse) has several Trek programs airing to help draw in new players. With that said, STO is not without its faults, the over saturation of VFX vomit being the biggest problem in my opinion. I wholeheartedly agree the quality of the Trek IP has suffered greatly ever since Bad Reboot took it over in 2009.

If they are not a member with storage access permissions, what can they steal? If they are a member, it is very easy to remedy. Changing the base passcode solves this.

For the folks who continually whine and cry about AE and how it is supposedly ruining the game, please remember that PLing to 50 existed long before there was an AE. Removing the AE buildings from starter zones will do nothing to stop farming. I also wholeheartedly disagree that people cannot be invested in characters that were leveled outside of "normal" story mission content. I have a great many characters that I play regularly that I enjoy very much, all of which were leveled via running TFs, AE content or a combination of the two. Character investment is entirely subjective to the individual and their preferred style of play. It is important to remember this is an aged game that has some nostalgic value and while it can be fun, it simply cannot compete with more modern games offering more robust graphics, more advanced features and better game play mechanics. Do not get me wrong, I enjoy CoH very much, however I see it as very wishful thinking to believe this game will ever draw in and maintain huge crowds of new players.

Thanks. Those are SS/INV though ... was looking for SS/WP. 😁

Kick him in the junk! Serves him right for all his hand clapping mobs off the bridges!

Anyone have a build for a SS/WP Brute they would not mind sharing? I have had a hankering to roll a punchy smashy Hulky-type alt. I have been futzing in Mids to see if I can come up with something that soft caps either typed or melee DEF (or at least comes pretty close) but have not had much luck. A couple of caveats - I am not one who needs to take Hasten so no real need for it and would like to include Hurl which I know a lot of people skip. I want it for concept. Any build suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

First look at Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader! https://ew.com/tv/darth-vader-obi-wan-kenobi-hayden-christensen-exclusive-photo/

Same here! So excited for this one. Absolutely love Ewan McGregor in this role! He was the best part of the prequel series IMO. Cannot wait to see this. I have been pumped for this since it was first announced.

Chances are very good that it is the latter unfortunately. ☹️ Would certainly be very cool to have though.

A little bit of interesting and cool news about STO - Thomas Marrone (ship designer on STO) had a few of his designs make it into official canon on Star Trek Picard.

They stopped supporting Mac a long time ago. There is not enough people using Macs to justify maintaining two different systems.

Yes I hope the parental controls are up to snuff there for sure!

Will be available on Hulu. https://www.superherohype.com/tv/511010-hulu-orders-a-futurama-revival-with-original-cast-members-returning https://www.superherohype.com/tv/511828-john-dimaggio-is-officially-returning-for-hulus-futurama-revival

I tried watching this and fell asleep. Very boring in my opinion.

Not to further derail the thread, but since you asked... you can consider that flimsy all you like, there is no question it is canon to the source material. There are non Asgardians residing in Asgard in the Marvel Universe. Following your logic, it should be no issue at all for you to have Whites, Asians, Arabs, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders and whatever other ethnic group you can think of portrayed as natives to places like Wakanda or have characters in the upcoming sequel from Wakanda recast as non-African to give non-African actors a chance. Again, there is a great diversity among the worlds of men in Middle Earth. You can even make the case that there is diversity among the Hobbits as I believe they were supposed to be closely related to men. In the races of elves and dwarves, not so much. That much is very clear from the source material.

Some yes. All of them, no. So was Saruman the White and various other people. Ok so you do not want to post any of the various other critics which you seemed to allude there were many of. That is fine. It should be more than abundantly clear to anyone looking at the image you posted what the influences of the character design are. Point being, Kirby allowed for non-white characters to exist in Asgard, so it stands to reason they would be in the MCU.

Source - https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/daredevil-marvel-stream-disney-plus-1235188404/ Looks to include Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well. Very cool! Will be surprising to see The Punisher on Disney Plus!

No need to get angry. I cannot help it if you are wrong. Kirby created Hogun who is depicted of Asian descent as one of the integral characters in the Thor comics, so there is existing precedent in the Marvel universe for there to be non-white characters in Asgard.

The same can be said for the various races of men who fought one another for a whole host of reasons, not just Easterlings or Haradrim. Tolkien's notes, letters and other writings provide a picture of what his intentions were. What we read in his published works is just the very tip of the iceberg with regard to the story and world he was creating. There was simply no way for him to cram all of it into the LoTR. This is why there is so much information presented in the appendices, some of which is critical to the characters of the story. He still is not a literary critic making assertions about the authenticity of the work and whether it is "true Tolkien" or not. I would like to read those critiques if you do not mind posting them.

Again, please do your research. Not all characters in Asgard in the Thor comics were Asgardian. Hogun - one of the warriors three - was not Asgardian.

I can only speak for myself here but I am not feeling any vitriol or animosity directed at me. I rather enjoy a good debate and find them to be a very good, very healthy thing. Again, please do your research. As @TheOtherTed pointed out, you are grasping at straws here. No, not all Easterlings were evil. So it is inaccurate because it is based on Tolkien's own notes and writings? That makes no sense at all. As @TheOtherTed asked, please post them. I would like to read them as well. Interviews with his son Christopher are not the same thing as literary critics.

Please do your research. This is not at all accurate. Not even remotely close. Ilúvatar created the race of men, which encompasses all the races we read about in Tolkien's work. The Haradrim were, like many other kingdoms in the worlds of men, divided in their allegiances. Some sided with Sauron, others opposed him. So no, not all "dark skinned" races were evil. Many took up arms to oppose Sauron. As I and others have pointed out in the thread, there is a very rich, very diverse, very interesting story in the worlds of men that has never been explored in depth. The events touched on in the video above would be a great setting for that epic GoT type series Bezos wanted to use LoTR for. How would those Haradrim who opposed Sauron feel about not getting a ring of power? Lots of interesting tales to be told revolving around Umbar and places in the south.

I understand what Tolkien himself wrote on this very topic of discussion. He drew from various historical and religious influences, but he was not including any of it as topical or allegorical. You are mistakenly trying to apply allegory and direct correlation where Tolkien himself said there was none. Things like the White Tree of Gondor being a symbol for Gondor and having meaning in the books is not a direct correlation to anything Christian or real world related. This is not at all difficult to understand, especially since the man himself made that absolutely clear. Again, Tolkien knew what he was talking about and what his intent for what he created. These things influenced him, sure. They were not direct correlations though. I think there is a distinction between an existing fan base who enjoys a work as written versus angry twitter mobs who just want to complain about every little thing. I would agree the latter are not worth listening to.

Right so the original author clearly explaining the intent behind his life's work is wrong and your interpretation of his work is correct. Got it. Give us a break. I would counter this with ask why is it necessary to update it at all? If anything, history has more than proven Tolkien's work has globally universal appeal. At one point, it was known as being second only to the bible in terms of readership. There was no need to update it or modernize it or change it to tailor to individual regional and political tastes. Quite clearly people from all over the world found the story appealing and enjoyed it without it needing to be reworked or re-imagined to cater to them despite it having a traditional English setting. People all over the world still are finding Tolkien and enjoying his work coming up 70 years after LoTR was published. History is proving it does not need to be updated with modern day political messaging to have appeal. As to what the potential damage could be, I think the video I linked above and subsequent discussion has already covered that. To recap, it is abundantly clear that these changes are alienating quite a lot of the existing fan base and not in a good way. Who is this going to be for if not for the fans? This is not a good place to start from in my opinion. I cannot speak for everyone, but I personally see Tolkien's work and LoTR in particular as something of a period piece. I understand Tolkien was trying to create a fictional English history. Modern sensibilities, tastes and current world politics did not exist then and I just do not see the necessity to try and inject them into the story now. The characters and story are strong enough as is to not need to be updated to put these things into it. This is why LoTR has endured for so long, it is a very good, timeless story. Wanted to share another interview which I thought was relevant to the discussion. Another opinion piece of course, but he does make some good points here.