James

[quote name='Dee][FONT=Trebuchet MS'] I do have to say this though, there is no point in passing on QKT to another OB member if we're all going to be spread apart. I mean what good is an OB guild without the members? I hope things work out for the best, but I'd love to know beforehand if the guild is being disbanded for sure or not.[/FONT][/quote] [font=franklin gothic medium]My feeling is that if a more active member took control of the guild, they would have the motivation to go out there and attract more members. So QKT would cease to be an OB-only guild and it would simply become a regular guild where anyone from anywhere could be added. I'm keeping QKT open for now, but I'm happy to accept suggestions about what we can do. Perhaps some of our last remaining active members would like to become Officers so that they have the power to draw in more new members from elsewhere.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]At this point I'm not sure what to do with our guild. I am thinking that it may be better for me to simply leave and perhaps join Desbreko's new guild. But if I leave, the guild dies - unless, of course, I hand it over to someone. So basically I guess I'm willing to offer the guild to new ownership, if someone wants it. There are many advantages, in the sense that you wouldn't have to pay for an expensive guild hall and capes since they are already in place. If anyone is interested, please let me know. I am not entirely certain if I'll do this just yet, but it is looking likely at the moment.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Chat is something we may do in the future, but we can really only do it if the quality can be controlled. I'm not referring so much to censorship, but more to raw moderation and features. Our old chatroom was based on IRC and I don't think the actual quality of IRC was good enough for what we wanted. But it also really ran away from us, because we had people appointing moderators out of nowhere and in the end the chatroom was basically out of our control. People were having bad experiences on there and that's not how it should be. So, while we have no plans for a chatroom right now, I am not going to rule one out entirely in the future. It really depends on the technology and how interested the members are. For now though, obviously, OtakuBoards is all about discussing things with other people - best of all, the quality is higher than in a chatroom and there are many more options here.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Although I'm not really obsessed with any one song right now, I would say that my current favourite is Dissolved Girl by Massive Attack. It's been my "current favourite" since early 2004, so...that's probably the longest single run any one song has had, lol. There are other songs that have come and gone more recently that I've listened to a lot, but none of them are as popular with me as that one track.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]My signature is actually the logo for the Sydney Opera House. Having just been down to the Mardi Gras - and having loved it - I thought I'd use that as a theme for my avatar and signature. I really like the Opera House logo, it's very simple and very distinctive.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I haven't played Halo 2, so I can't comment on that. And with the first Halo, I haven't seen enough to really say anything accurate about the plot. My complaints don't relate to the plot anyway. Afterall, there are plenty of first person shooters with horrible (or non-existant) plots that are still brilliant due to their gameplay. And, while I like a good game-plot, at the end of the day I am still playing a game. So I want the gameplay to be fun first and foremost; plot is secondary at best. In terms of repetition, there's a clear reason why I'd want to complain about that. Although repetition can be fun - and most games are based on it, if you think about it - the kind of repetition in Halo that I'm referring to isn't positive. It's not the repeating of a fun action, it's the repetition of textures and architecture (as well as relatively few enemies) that causes problems. There were times where I wasn't sure where to go because the design of the environment was so repetitive that it was difficult to identify one room as being different to another. In terms of the way story was presented, I often felt that it was like a "Half-Life Lite". In other words, the game was borrowing some story-telling techniques from Half-Life and it came off as feeling redundant. So while I don't actually dislike the game, I don't really think it's worthy of the praise that has been thrown at it over the years. People seem to put it in the same league as Goldeneye or Half-Life in terms of its impact...but I think that's actually almost an insult to Goldeneye and Half-Life. Halo is a solid game, but I don't think it's groundbreaking.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]If I could open a store (and if I had an unlimited budget), I'd probably want to open a video game or music store. Or maybe a combination of both. A lot of game stores are really boring, I think. One store near my old home, called Video Games Heaven, did a few things really well though. The owner used to visit Tokyo Game Show and E3 and each year after he came back, he'd put up souveniers from the show all around the shop. I remember one year, he had a glass case in the center of the store with a giant "Tokyo Game Show" Japanese fan sitting there on display. It was fantastic. So if I could create a game store with unlimited cash, I'd probably have it on multiple levels and I'd probably incorporate a few little ideas that I've seen elsewhere - like the playing booths that Nintendo have at their Nintendo store in New York, for instance. A music store would also be cool, as I really love the atmosphere of such places. With unlimited money, I'm sure an amazing store could be built. I liked what the Virgin Megastore near me did, where they had a sound-proof area that was seperated from the rest of the store (it was a type of red glass or perspex, in a curve, but it had a large opening in one side for visitors). I'm sure that type of thing could be expanded upon. I like the idea of people sampling different kinds of music at any volume they want, without disturbing the rest of the store. [/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]This decision is really up to Desbreko, as he'd be the one who would be making the changes. I think the idea itself is fine, but I should point out something as well. We are primarily an anime site, which is why we have a category for each anime title. We have blanket categories for film and music because those areas - while they are included in OB - are not really our biggest focus. This was the original reason behind the way the library is organized. I would be happy enough to change that, if everyone is in favor of it. But also, I did not want new galleries to be opened unless they begin with at least six avatars (I believe it was six, anyway - I might be forgetting the precise number). In any case, whenever there are enough avatars about one thing to justify its own category, I think that's fine. However, it might be a little confusing if we have a lot of regular films and bands and stuff mixed in with anime. If you guys would prefer it that way though, then I have no problem at all.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I think that if you play Final Fantasy VII today for the first time, it's probably less impressive because of all that has come after it. But if you were to play it when it was first released, I think the praise would make more sense. It's like that with Super Mario 64; play it now and it feels limited and clunky compared to games like Jak & Daxter or even Super Mario Sunshine. A lot of it is about context, I think. Anyway, I'd have to say...the most overrated game I've come across would have to be Halo. I find it kind of amazing when people say "Sony and Nintendo have all this other stuff...but only MS has Halo!" Er...I just don't understand that, lol. I've been playing Halo where I'm currently living and nothing about it impresses me at all. I'd played multi-player a while ago, but lately I've been playing single-player. And...yeah. Single-player is repetitive and boring. The enemy AI is no better than something like Turok on Nintendo 64. It does use some interesting storytelling techniques, but most of those are pretty much lifted from Half-Life, which game out years beforehand. Having said that, I'm comparing Halo to first person shooters on the PC...and in that sense, it just doesn't compare to many of them. If you look at consoles only, perhaps it has a better shot at impressing...but I don't know. I find Goldeneye more enjoyable, frankly - and that's despite its now-dated graphics and awful framerate. I just never understood the whole "Halo phenomenon". There are other games on Xbox that I find far more impressive.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I haven't read this entire thread, as I have limited 'net access right now, but I did want to make a couple of comments. First of all, almost every ban is discussed by the staff as a group. I generally don't get very involved in that stuff these days and usually the final decision will rest with Dagger, Desbreko or one of the other senior staff. Quite often I will allow a ban to go ahead without any discussion at all, because we have guidelines as to what we'll ban people over and what we won't. In regard to this particular situation, Alex and Mitch have obviously been going at each other for a long time and generally it hasn't been a huge problem. Usually I'm happy to just have off-topic posts deleted so that the entire thread isn't dragged down. But obviously, despite repeated warnings, rules have been broken. Generally those violations have been pretty minor and even the arguments they've had have often still related to the topic (so they've been fiery debates, but not exactly rule-breaking fights). But due to the latest thread, the issue came up for discussion and I basically told the rest of the staff to do whatever they felt was right - if that meant banning older members, so be it. I figure that if someone is warned, we certainly can't be held responsible for their continued violations of rules. In some cases, I will go in an overturn a ban if I feel it hasn't been justified or whatever. But that's pretty rare. Usually I support the decisions made by staff, especially when they've discussed it amongst themselves. I think the underlying point is that we'll always try to give someone several chances and we'll try to be as fair as we can. But at the end of the day, if it's becoming too much of a problem, we'll always move to keep the site clear from misbehavior, even if it means banning older members. And yeah, Tony asked to be banned. I think people sometimes overestimate the level of subversive stuff that goes on among staff, lol.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I was writing up a mech-based RPG some time ago and I still have all the original information here on my computer if you are interested. The gist of it was basically that there were different Orbital Frame training schools all over the world (think of the Gardens from FFVIII) and that they would compete in global competitions. The actual design of the Orbital Frames was probably closer to something like Zone of the Enders. However, each school came from a different region of the world and their OF designs were reflected by their nation. So you'd have one school that was close to the ocean and their OFs could travel underwater...or you'd have one school that was in an industrial setting and their OFs would have heavier weaponry (but would be heavier and a little slower). The story was to revolve around a female trainee and her relationships with other students from all over the world. I hadn't really developed the backstory, but I [i]did[/i] create specific information about all the regions and what types of OFs they produced (including actual numerical stats for each type). Unfortunately my Internet connection is going to be very questionable over the coming month, but I've always wanted to collaborate with someone on that particular RPG idea. Right now all the data is just sitting in a text file on my computer doing nothing. So it might as well be used. ^_^[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I am generally not a fan of IGN's reviews either. But go and read their review on this film. Then you'll understand why I am mentioning it. ^_^[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I recommend taking a look at the IGN review. It acknowledges the controversy but thankfully doesn't get caught up on such superficial issues and focuses on the film itself. Unfortunately there are plenty of people who have already dismissed the movie simply due to the subject matter.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I just wonder if Solo will write a "sequel" or a second series once the new OB is finished. I actually think about designs and stuff and wonder how he will interpret that in a story. Considering that it sits in the back of my mind all the time, I think that just shows how big the impact has been. ~_^[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I don't know if I'll be able to fill in all ten, as my memory is fairly poor at the moment, but I'll give it a go. :catgirl: [b]Adam/Justin:[/b] For me, putting these guys here is just a no-brainer. They really deserve a lot more recgonition than they often get. I really have to commend Adam for making Art of Otaku such a success and I have to give a shout to Justin for his constant assistance with the technical bits. I'm really looking forward to working with both of them on future sites. [b]Dagger/Desbreko:[/b] I've put both Dagger and 'breko together simply because they form a great Administrator team. These two have really lightened the load for me and have allowed me to focus on other things - Dagger has not only done a great job as Admin, but she's been running her own successful graphics tournament, which has really been a big boost to the Art Studio forum. And Desbreko is simply a dedicated and tireless Administrator...he answers questions, he is always prepared to do more to help out and he is very trustworthy and responsible. I'm very proud to have these two taking care of OtakuBoards when I'm not around. [b]Aaryanna/SunfallE/CosmicSailor and other myOtaku commenters:[/b] This last year has really seen so many changes...and in particular, a few new regular visitors have been coming to my page at myOtaku. It wouldn't be right for me to make listings here without giving a shout to these guys - not only are their comments always very in-depth and insightful, but I've received so much support from them that I feel very grateful. All the wonderful cards and kind words have been a big help to me, as life has been changing so much recently. [b]Charlie:[/b] It kind of saddens me that I don't see as much of him anymore. Not only are his comments on myOtaku always great, but I've always loved his attitude about life and his sense of humor. Charlie's one of those people who makes the Internet more fun and worthwhile. I figure it's about time I give him some real recognition. ;) [b]Annie:[/b] Not only is Annie incredibly cool, but she's one of the people who I feel I've gotten fairly close to over the last year. We've had so many conversations about everything in our lives that I don't think I could ever forget her. More importantly, she's yet another person who makes the Internet a pleasant place for me. It wouldn't be the same without her. The fact that she also sent me the coolest t-shirt in existence is also incredibly cool...that has fast become my favourite item of clothing and so that's something tangible that I'll always remember. [b]Shy:[/b] Despite his busy schedule, Shy has continued to create new events on OtakuBoards. When I asked for more regular events, he gave them to me! And I'm very happy about that, especially given the tremendous scale of threads like The Legionnaires. I love Shy's creative writing and I think he's one of the most creative minds we have here at OtakuBoards. I really look forward to seeing where he takes our events in the future. [b]Play It:[/b] It's a small forum, especially as far as gaming forums go...but it's pure gold. As people have mentioned, we do get our odd crazy threads and such, but in general I find the place to be a great read. It makes me happy that we can incoporate serious gaming discussions into what is really a pretty crazy web site. [b]SYF:[/b] I never participated in these RPGs (mostly because I felt a little intimidated by their size/scope/writing talent), but I've always felt that they were probably the most underrated RPG series in this site's history. The "bigger" or more famous RPGs definitely deserve their recognition, but I think that SYF is a truly great piece of work and I am always honored when writing like that graces OtakuBoards. [b]Newbies:[/b] There's sometimes a stigma related to newbies, but most of the people who were classified as "newbies" over the last year have turned out to be incredibly valuable members. I think what surprised me most about 2005 was that, for once, we had more incredibly good new members arriving than members who "needed work". We used to be able to expect a small minority of new members to be truly amazing, but that's a trend that has really reversed this year. [b]The Future:[/b] Okay, so this isn't something that necessarily fits into the guidelines as such...but I think the past year is a good indication of where we are going. And because early work has already begun on future iterations of this site and others, I can safely say that the best is yet to come. Even this latest OtakuBoards is really just scratching the surface of where we can go and what we can become. I am very eager to continue pushing OtakuBoards in new directions. v7 is definitely more a great beginning than a great end.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I'm loving the latest two chapters, Solo. I only just had the chance to read them and they're just as fun as the rest of the series. I really love how you keep updating it to coincide with what you see happening on the site. Very cool. I'm almost a little disappointed that I didn't end up dancing with someone...I'm curious to see who you'd have paired me with. ~_^ Are you working on another chapter or is this the last we'll see in a while? I'm already eager to see how you work even more things into the story. ^_^[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]My basic philosophy is that we don't actually require that many staff at OB. Usually OB has as many staff as it needs - rather than throw in staff, I try to keep us on as few staff as possible. That's why I tend to choose people who are very active/dedicated. It may seem like a big task, but I assure you, Moderating OB isn't very difficult (depending on the area and specific tasks, anyway). I can come on here for fifteen minutes and moderate the entire site for the day - that includes closures, moving things around, deleting posts or whatever else. The only time that process really slows down is when we need to post specific messages or send PMs and so on. But [i]generally[/i] it's a lot less work than it may seem. Having said that though, we do need more staff. But due to my current situation I'm not really able to get more staff on in a timely manner. That'll change soon, so all I can say is "watch this space". I'd say we'll probably be adding somewhere between five and six staff in the end and that should balance things out well enough.[/font]

[quote name='Retribution][size=1]You didn't say it was 'interesting' that Hollywood often casts black Presidents, you said that you thought they had an [i]agenda[/i'], which I interpreted to mean they had ulterior motives. I mean, the word 'agenda,' to me, has negative connotations. When you say 'That judge has an agenda,' it's not a positive, or even a neutral thing.[/size][/quote] [font=franklin gothic medium]An agenda is simply a group of things that are up for discussion/consideration or action. There's no inherent negative connotation to that word. Politicians often like using the word in a negative context though. I would say that Hollywood often does have an agenda with this type of thing, but it's by no means an negative one - fictional situations obviously allow you to create scenarios that may not be occurring in real life (ie: a black or female president). Sometimes that probably has a message behind it (perhaps that a non-white or non-male president would be just as capable?). But, you know, that's what movies are about anyway...so there's no big deal there. I think it's kind of sad that the United States hasn't yet had a female leader, although I'm very surprised that Australia hasn't had a female prime minister yet...especially when you consider that New Zealand has had several and especially when you consider that we've had female premiers (governors) before. In Australia's case I think the main problem right now is a lack of candidates. There are some women who could probably move to that position but I think the issue is heirarchy (especially in the current government). Yes, there are women who could be considered for the job, but there is already a line of several men who are kind of waiting around for it (I'm looking at you, Peter Costello). In any case, it does actually surprise me that this type of thing is even still an issue in so many places. I wouldn't want to vote for someone just because they are female or black, however, that isn't a quality that would stop me voting for them either. It'd just be nice to see more candidates that aren't the stereotype that we always see.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I am personally not concerned about a swearing epidemic, because I agree that if we switched off the censor tomorrow, very few people would be swearing regularly. I tend to think that higher quality posts also equate to less swearing, simply because people tend to have a slightly wide vocabulary. lol However, it comes back to the issue of what members and their parents want. I think the big difficulty is that we're trying to walk a very fine line, so that the site is acceptable for younger teenagers but is also enjoyable for older teenagers and adults. Walking that line isn't easy, without doubt. I'd certainly be in favor of an optional filter, if that can be easily applied. [/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I read the book so long ago that I barely remember it, which in a way is probably a bad thing...it was tougher to appreciate the movie in terms of how it drew on the book. But in another way, seeing the movie in its own right may have been a good thing. That way I can just enjoy it and I'm not constantly comparing it. Basically I thought it was pretty standard fare, save for a few little flourishes that I really enjoyed. The actual story was reasonably well handled - probably as well as it could have been. The story itself had some aspects that I really enjoyed, particularly the end sequence (about how you can only enter Narnia when you are not looking for it and how the children had lived entire lives in mere seconds). I feel that these smaller aspects were handled with great care, which was very pleasing. In terms of acting and stuff, I have no real complaints. Most of the acting was decent enough - child actors are notoriously bad at times, but the ones in Narnia were mostly just fine. So I have no issues there. And the adult characters were fine as well. As for effects, again, I have no real complaints. I agree about the planes at the start, but everything else was reasonable. Aslan was done well and other aspects were done quite well too - basically, yes, you can often tell that CGI is used...but I don't think it detracts. It was mostly incredibly seamless in Narnia, which I appreciate. So although the film didn't blow me away or anything, I did find it enjoyable. I actually liked it more than Lord of the Rings in some respects - perhaps because the pacing was a little better and because it wasn't quite so dry.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I think we will continue to have some kind of user agreement, but my intention is to scrap the vB agreement and write my own. It'll be a lot shorter, a lot simpler and will be tougher to avoid. I have some ideas about how we can redesign registration in our own way, by having a three-step process or something...it sounds like a lot, but it would hopefully be faster than what we have now. The idea would just be to help filter out the people who really aren't going to post with the kind of quality we're hoping for here. Unfortunately we (and most forums) still contain a lot of the regular vB stuff. And that's fine, because it's all relevant to us...but I really want to scrap all of the default vB bits and write everything specifically for OB. I think that will make things a lot more logical.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I think one of the difficulties we face is that OtakuBoards is part of a network that, on the whole, attracts teenagers rather than adults. Something like 20% of myOtaku users are actually over 20 years old, I believe. The vast bulk are between 14 and 18 years of age. On myOtaku that works out just fine, because each person can create their own page and can have control over it. OtakuBoards, on the other hand, is a more "public" place, where everyone's posts are mixed together and are largely held to the same standard. That makes things difficult. As you can imagine, many new OB members come from theOtaku.com or myOtaku.com and as a result, we do end up having to do a major job of moderating, because there isn't the need for that kind of moderation on a place like myOtaku. If your myOtaku site is horribly written and confusing, nobody will visit it - so in the end, it's a kind of self-fulfilling thing. But OB isn't like that for obvious reasons. This is something that we cannot really control, but we can take steps to improve the situation. When the new OB is released next year, I think you'll find that it will act more as an entryway to the network as opposed to being a place where people visit after they've seen other sites. At the very least, my hope is that it'll be designed to be more flexible and more easy to use and moderate. I think the actual design and implementation of the site will make a difference there. In regard to blocking users and stuff...I think that we need to keep some quality control on registration, but we also need to make the entire process a lot faster and easier. One thing we don't want to do is alienate people before they've even posted. The actual registration process will play a role there. I think we can redesign it to encourage higher-quality members and to filter out the lower-quality ones before they even post. But I would not want to filter people based on age in general, because I think that measure is too arbitrary, especially when you consider the network that OB sits within. I like the idea that OB can be a place where someone of any age can find something relevant to them. That obviously makes the challenge more difficult for us, but I hope that it also makes for a slightly more diverse and interesting site.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I mostly think it's interesting that there are always people who are telling us that the world is getting worse and going down the toilet. In fact, the opposite is always true, at least in a longterm sense. I remember seeing a funny TV interview of a reverend during the 70's, where he was talking about the moral decay of society and how we only had another decade until the world broke out into complete and utter chaos. Funny how that worked out. I've always thought that instead of predicting the end of the world, we should be thinking about how the world is always improving. Although it's a gradual process, so many things are getting better - education, human rights, political freedoms, etcetera. These things take time and there are deviations along the way, but basically I think the world is always moving in a positive direction. I think there is always a desire for some kind of radical change, especially from young people. And I'm sure there are probably areas where radical change would be really beneficial. But at the same time, I don't think that a realistic view hurts - especially when you look back at history and realize how much things have changed for the better in general. So, sure, there are terrible things out there that need fixing...but I think that will always be the case. Sometimes these things just take time. As for the stuff about totalitarianism in America and wire taps and all of that...I don't know what to say except "get a clue". That kind of stuff is a complete insult to anyone who has [i]actually[/i] lived under a totalitarian regime. Seriously, all you need to do is both know your history and have some vague understanding of how the American political system works. I'm certainly the first to suggest that there are problems, but "totalitarian" is a kind of word that is being thrown around without any real understanding of its full weight.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]The main thing to note is that we don't censor people's ideas or anything. I mean, censoring swearing is one thing, but we don't actually censor what people have to say. The language filter is simply to encourage quality posting. I don't think we should assume that adults necessarily want to see bad language - they probably want to avoid it more than younger members. Regarding classifications, I want to clarify that a little. Our classifications are not designed to physically block people from threads. They are merely suggestions, so that thread creators can let other members know what kind of content a thread may have. That's all they are for. If people enter these threads, they do so with the knowledge of what the content may include. So at that point it's their choice really. What we wouldn't do is present something mature without forewarning people. I do not want to limit what subjects people discuss, but I do want to ensure that other members are forewarned about the content.[/font]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Staff can delete your account if you really want it to be deleted. The reason we don't allow self-deletion relates to security - sometimes people are careless and they allow others to get into their account (because they remained signed-in or their password was easily-guessable). If an account is used by an unauthorized person, we wouldn't want that person to be able to delete the entire account.[/font]