plain madness
 

i once claimed that if i ever built a ringworld in a multiplayer game, i would name it molly just to cause the other players to wince in pain from the sheer awfullness of the pun.

im proud to say that not only have i achieved that, but i have renamed the other planets in the system to be a filmography. completely INSANE? yes, i think i am.

id link to a picture if i knew where to upload one. ah well.

Re: plain madness
 

insane? yeah! funny

Re: plain madness
 

A ringworld named Molly? I don't get it... is Molly the name of Larry Niven's wife?

Come to think of it, you actually managed to build a ringworld in a MULTIPLAYER game??? You had the TIME to???

Re: plain madness
 

You must be very young, Ed. You never heard of Molly Ringwald? She was a 'bratpacker' back in the 80s but I guess she's not been very visible in the Last decade or so. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: plain madness
 

either that or he is too old to have been watching teenage movies in the 80s. which is more likely, given the general demographics of this forum.

Re: plain madness
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Molly, oh Molly. The Last thing I saw her in was the T.V. adaptation of "The Stand". She almost made you root for the bad guys in that one. She lived, but her acting career didn't. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Geoschmo

Re: plain madness
 

Ewww... you actually watch Stephen King movies? Do you seriously think even a 'great' actress like Cate Blanchett could have saved that kind of material? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: plain madness
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Which essentially asks the question (although King might be a skilled or possibly talented writer) does he write good books? As in quality.

Re: plain madness
 

Actually, I think I just answered that question. But if the hint is too vague let me say that I don't think you should waste any money actually buying a Stephen King book to find out. Check one at the library. Unfortunately, he's very popular and lots of libraries will have some of his books.

Re: plain madness
 

So, who is your suspense writer of choice. I like Dean Koontz and have read most of his works. He has a way of immersing and involving his readers IMHO.

Re: plain madness
 

Suspense? I don't read it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif The closest thing I have any interest in is 'mystery' stories but even there I'm old school, as in Sherlock Holmes. Modern stuff is generally stupid and sensationalistic. The only fiction I read with any regularity is Scifi and Fantasy.

The current crop of "SE IV Fiction" on these Boards is quite interesting if a bit simplistic. Of course that's not surprising given the venue. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif With thought some of it might be developed into pretty decent stories, though.

Re: plain madness
 

Well, I can't really speak for King's body of work as a whole. I read The Stand and enjoyed it very much, although I have never read anything else he wrote. I read The Stand not because I like Stephen King, but because I enjoy dark, apocylyptic stories.

The Stand miniseries was not very good, although it had some moments. I just don't think the book could be translated to the screen. I also saw the Langoliers, and that was pretty close to aweful. Four hours long, and just hideous. It might have made a halfway decent 30 minute Twilight Zone episode. You might have even got a 2 hour movie out of it if you stretched it. I have no idea why they tried to drag it out into a miniseries. No suspense in that one at all. And the special effects were even bad by TV standards.

Geoschmo

Re: plain madness
 

Don't bother with the great beast of sarcasm Baron...oddly enough, I know of no one who buys King's books, but somehow they have one to lend to you.

Read several, including The Stand (all from the library http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ).

King's biggest flaw as a writer, or creator of stories, are his endings. There are other faults, but that's the worst.

Come on--a kiddie sex scene in IT to find the correct path in the sewers? The hand of God in the Stand igniting the A-bomb? (being that the endings suck, I can't see how these spoil the them for anyone). It's like he tries to cross a metaphysical ending with a hollywood shootem-up ending....and ends up with lameness in excess.

Right now, I'm reading a stack of Philip Dick novels. When I get to the end of them, I think, "That was pretty good," having at that very moment forgotten that the first 150 pages of it, bored me half to sleep. Like enjoying the flavor of a bite of food only after you've swallowed it. Odd.

Re: plain madness
 

Stephen King: I agree with Jmen. The endings suck. I liked the whole "rebuilding civilisation" theme in "the Stand", though- I think that would make a cool 4X game: imagine a game where you have to fortify office buildings against bandits and mutants, raid supermarkets and hardware stores for supplies and weapons... It would be very cool. Also enjoyed the Dead Zone, but it's soooo long since I Last read it.

Molly Ringworld... My teenage years missed the 80s, thank god (born '76) but I will confess to really enjoying the film "sixteen candles", which by all rights should be one of the worst films ever made, but somehow entertains me massively every time I see it.
Maybe it's because they only ever show it late at night and I'm generally drunk by then...

Re: plain madness
 

I thought that 'The Breakfast Club' was the big movie for Molly Ringwald? Isn't that the one that made her a 'star'? But I'm not very interested in celebrities so maybe I'm just mis-remembering. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: plain madness
 

No Baron, you are probably right. Breakfast Club probably had more of an impact on her career. Breakfast Club is another one of those movies that fits the Category of decent movie with a bad performance by Miss Molly. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Personally I liked Breakfast Club better.

I think the diff is Breakfast Club is more of a ensemble thing. All the brat packers had pretty much equal roles. Where Sixteen Canldes she was pretty clearly the center and star of the movie.

Geoschmo

Re: plain madness
 

Ringworld's bad acting in Breakfast Club actually works for her playing a stiff, stuck up teen.

Re: plain madness
 

It funny you say that Mensch, cause I was just coming back to say that I realize it sounds like I really hate Molly Ringworld and I don't. She is probably a really nice person. In fact she may be such a wonderful actress that my negative feelings towards her is actually a transposition of my dislike for the characters that she portrays.

These teenaged, self absorbed, whiney princess types that are so annoying in real life. All of them go through their day acting and putting on a show for everyone around them. Perhaps Molly is just such a good actress that she has captured that artificality so well. Maybe she isn't a bad actress, she just plays one in movies?

How's that for introspection? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Geo

Re: plain madness
 

Does that mean Stephen King is really a master who can immitate a worthless pulp-fiction hack?

Re: plain madness
 

Hmmm...perhaps you have hit on it, Geo. Poor Molly has been type-casted as an actor. The 80's somehow had a fascination with stuck-up, whiney rich girls. It portrayed them as full of themselves and narrow, but the 80's heros always had a soft spot for them.

Now we want them every bit as either stupid or industrious as the hero.

Perhaps this is a win for feminism, but it could possibly have been the death knell of the Last fragments of character development existing in hollywood. And it was certainly bad for Molly.

Can you judge someone's talents who hasn't been invited to the proving grounds?

[ June 24, 2002, 16:38: Message edited by: Jmenschenfresser ]

Re: plain madness
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ouch. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: plain madness
 

How about..."master pulp fiction hack"?

Re: plain madness
 

The Shining (w/Jack Nicholson) was pretty damn good. Can't think of any other "good" King movies though (Shawshank Redemption was good, but was a short story only).

Katchoo

Re: plain madness
 

LOL...

Stephen King himself hated the Version with Jack Nicholson. He was much happier with another adaptation done a couple years ago.

Edit: You know, there was one good Stephen King movie. It was not a 'horror' story at all, though. Stand By Me -- with Wil Wheaton, btw. Weeeeasly Crusher at 12. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ June 24, 2002, 17:14: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Re: plain madness
 

Shawhank Redemtion was Stephen King? I am an idiot for not knowing that. That movie was awesome! I never read the book though.

Geoschmo

Re: plain madness
 

I was old enough to see sixteen candles when it first came out, but not quite old enough to "get" it. Watched it later and liked it, but Miss Molly struck me as being the worst actress in a pretty good movie. In fact that could be said about a lot of her movies.

Geoschmo

Re: plain madness
 

the problem with many authors is that once they have some money rolling in, they have most of their work ghost written. the author puts together a plot outline, some character descriptions, or just a fricking title. then some other mook writes the actual book.

i wonder how many books King has actually WRITTEN in the Last 10 years. stand by me, tho, was great.

as for sixteen candles, i was always a big fan of John Cusack. and who couldn't like a movie featuring a character called Long Duk Dong. the character interactions with that guy were Hilarious with a capital Hilarious. hmm, maybe i should just plead Dogscoff's excuse and be done with it.