The Masked Carnie

Have you ever heard the thought that there's no such thing as an original story?  There are lots of creative people in this world, but all of them draw inspiration from other creative works.  This came up in the trial over the popular " Blurred Lines " song.  Pharrell Williams, a defendant who lost his case in court, said that creativity was stifled by this verdict, and it became more dangerous for anyone to make anything that was inspired by anyone.  Although I have not followed the case in any real detail beyond a very nice parody from Glove and Boots , it's easy to see how anyone who is creative for a living has to be very careful they don't accidentally make something too similar to someone else's work.  Although our world is vast with many ideas, there really is still a finite amount of possibilities, and with so many creators, those possibilities are being explored very rapidly.  I bring this up to ask the question: how valuable is it that we contin...

Totally short and random blog post today.  I've been picking up Skyrim again, just in the form of a consistent "quick fix."  It's a thing I'd be doing to kill time when I don't feel like doing anything particularly engaging.  I've played Skyrim enough that it's all pretty much dissected to me at this point, so it can do that.  I've started a new game with it, so the 3 Guardian Stones near the start of the game became relevant to me recently.  For those not already in the know, picking one of these stones let you learn either the Combat, Stealth, or Magic skills 20% faster than normal.  The common wisdom I've heard is that these things are actually bad for you, due to the world leveling up around you (also the same argument for never sleeping, since this also increases your skill gain).  This post is a little analysis of mine on that question.

Another DBZ post, because why not?  After I get some time with my new Doomtown game, I might write a little thing about that.  Right now though, I've finally been able to get a good amount of real experience with the DBZ CCG, and with a new expansion previewed, it seemed right to consider these things.  This won't all be about bad ideas, just mostly.  Hopefully, this will provide a bit of perspective in terms of potentially reintroducing these rules.  Best to get it out now, right?

Breaking away from Dragon Ball Z for a while, this week was a huge one for gamers.  I couldn't even tell you how many new games were coming out.  I'm sure this was to pre-empt Black Friday.  They are a lot of high-profile titles that fans have been anticipating for a while as-is, and retailers are going to have to contend with big crowds looking for deals next week.  Get those established fan crowds done now so you won't have to deal with overwhelming crowds later (not as much, anyway).  For me, that game is Super Smash Bros. 4.  Now, I was a big fan of Brawl for a while.  I liked that it removed a lot of the technical requirements present in Melee.  I'll concede that random tripping was dumb.  My Donkey Kong was actually pretty strong, just about competitive-level.  However, I am not interested enough that I want to try playing this thing competitively.  There's no way to remove high execution requirements in a game like this....

Dragon Ball Z is back!  Remember how awesome that was?  It's finally back in real card form!  The community for this game was so strong, Panini America decided to bring it back as an actual product, yet still compatible with the old game.  If you want to work the new cards in with the old stuff, the rules are basically the same as they always were.  As a fresh product, this game was definitely designed very well.  It plays mostly like the old game we always knew, with a few exceptions.  I like the idea of starting fresh, knowing the mistakes of the past so that hopefully they won't be repeated.  With any luck, this game will come to be an even better thing that its predecessor.  I'm totally not doing it because I had to sell all my old cards to fix my vehicle at one point.  That really helped make the decision, but I love the ground floor of anything.

  Last time, I wrote a little something going over the various styles & characters for the Dragon Ball Z CCG.  That was made to help people figure out how they like to play and pinpoint the best way to get into that.  It was fun to write, but I really don't feel like it helped much more than my ego.  This post is for all those right at the very bottom entry level of the game who haven't even played the game yet.  Maybe you haven't even purchased cards and are curious what it's all about.  Maybe you're confused with the rule book.  Whatever it is, I'm here to get you started.

Panina America's Dragon Ball Z TCG has finally launched!  It's been a long time in waiting.  It barely feels real, honestly.  After some shipping delays, I've managed to get a couple boxes and some starters.  Like anything else with a variety of play styles, this guide is here to help you determine what style and character to play, in no particular order.