Quote from: Kradie on December 28, 2019, 11:50 AM

You say ''unimaginative money makers''. I don't believe Star Wars started out like that, nor that George Lucas intended to be a money milking machine.

I know. Trilogies are fine. When I say franchise, I'm thinking of when there are 4 films or more and it seems like they just won't stop. The other thing is I don't normally care about most action or comedy or adventure-type movies. Horror movies aren't what they used to be either. So maybe I'm biased because most franchises just happen to pump out types of movies that I don't really like.

Although, there were 4 original Star Wars films if you count The Star Wars Holiday Special, haha. I watched that last year, pretty funny but had very little involvement from Lucas.

I feel like film in general has become so bad in the last 15 years or so. There's been a couple of movies that I've been excited to see but overall it's just a bunch of shit coming out that I couldn't care less about. I'm sure there's plenty of indie/underground/artsy/foreign films that have escaped my attention though. I'm not the voracious movie-watcher that I used to be. I still greatly enjoy watching movies but I can't watch them alone. I live by myself now (no roommates / gf / etc) so I watch very little of anything. For some reason I find watching a movie alone to be one of the loneliest experiences, so I don't bother. These days I basically just watch YouTube clips when I feel the need.

As far as horror goes, there's a few that I like but overall I'm not a fan of the genre. I watch movies to escape from reality and enjoy myself, not to sit through jump scares and be psychologically f@#!ed for the rest of the day. I like all kinds of movies but the ones I like best are a bit hard to describe... I'd say key components for me would be great use of color and light, great soundtrack / score, authentically representing a certain time period while also showing a side of it that maybe some people weren't aware of, some sort of sexuality / chemistry, edginess, real emotional impact (not gimmicks), etc. That said I also have a soft spot for B-movies and kinda cheesy movies too. Maybe that's because I used to be a huge stoner for years lol.

Some movies I can watch any time:

-Kids
-Literally anything by Gregg Araki... his movies are perfect IMO if you are up for something 'different' and cool, especially his 'doom generation' trilogy. It's so 90's it hurts.
-The Virgin Suicides
-Amelie
-Irreversible
-Brazil
-The Beach
-Go
-Dazed and Confused
-Friday
-Half Baked
-The City of Lost Children
-City of God
-Easy Rider
-The Raid
-The Handmaiden (the Asian one)
-Any Indiana Jones movie (aside from the newer one)
-Anything by Gaspar Noe
-Anything by Andrei Tarkovsky
-Anything by David Lynch
-Crash
-Dutch
-Jeremiah Johnson
-Miller's Crossing
-Almost anything by Guy Ritchie
-Anything by the Coen Brothers
-Anything by Gus Van Sant

etc etc.

I finally had the chance to see The Rise of Skywalker and I've been thinking about the films since Lucas sold his empire to Disney.

I will say that all in all TROS wasn't that bad. There were some parts that I thought were stupid but it was a hell of a lot better than the absolute dumpster fire that The Last Jedi was, and The Force Awakens wasn't that great either. I won't post any spoilers (yet) in case people haven't seen the movie.

IMO the newer Star Wars movies don't feel like real Star Wars movies. Sure, they have ships and lightsabers and droids and all of that shit but the spark just isn't there. The magic is gone. People can hate on the prequel trilogy all they want but at least those movies FELT like Star Wars and not fan fiction.

I used to give people money and whatnot but I learned over the years that it's not a good idea to do that because people become reliant upon it and expect it. If these people were really that desperate they could go to a shelter and stay, look for jobs, etc. The ONLY thing I will give beggars is food, and most of the time I won't even do that because on more than one occasion I've seen people throw away what I gave them. I just straight-up ignore bums anymore... I walk on past and pretend like I don't see / hear them, and as soon as they start talking to me I just wave my hand, shake my head, and walk on. Get a job.

Actually alcohol is potentially one of the most harmful drugs there is but I won't get into that.

As far as anyone wanting to play W:A, you could find an ISO file or something or you could just simply buy W:A on Steam. It goes on sale all of the time and it's super cheap. Even at full price ($15) we already know that it's worth the money spent.

Most newer games are boring AF, so let's all get back on W:A and have fun. 

It's not that I am stuck in a nostalgia bubble - I've seen every incarnation of W:A from the very beginning until now. I know that the W:A 'golden age' is long gone. It'd just be nice to see some familiar faces is all I'm saying. Hell, most of the people who post to this forum? Haven't seen them on WormNET in ages.

I can totally enjoy meeting and playing with new players but only if they speak English proficiently (many can't) and aren't random aliasers who change their names constantly. It seems like newer players are far less likely to chat and generally have fun and instead just focus on the game and nothing more. W:A for me has always been more about the 'social' aspect of playing rather than the matches themselves.

I'm older too (almost 39), and I work a lot, but I don't have kids or a wife so I guess I have more free time than some people. 

In short, I don't have an elitist mindset regarding W:A but I would definitely rather play with people who I already know for a few good reasons. (Not taking a risk of them being noobs, being able to catch up on life, laughing about old shit / reminiscing, etc.) When I see WormNET have such a pathetic amount of activity - to the point of being virtually dead - it makes me think of my own life and mortality and how they are kinda parallel in certain ways. Worms has, for better or for worse, been a huge part of my life for 20+ years now and it's honestly depressing to see W:A in its current state. 

I've been jumping onto Wormnet from time to time these past few weeks and I've barely seen ANYONE online. Last night there were 17 people in AG *including* bots and snoopers. I haven't seen many old school names on in a really long time. Does anyone actually still play W:A anymore?

I'd rather the game be on Steam but I didn't want to wait, and I don't think it's silly to expect that a game should work reasonably well upon launch. The modern gaming industry just sucks and I am tired of games coming out broken.

We don't have a clear timeline though. The timeline is blurry at best and falls apart at worst. My point is that there are clearly man-made structures on this planet that are far older than the beginning of 'history' as the mainstream knows it, like twice as old or more!

Also, I am not talking about primitive constructions made out of bolders. I am talking about very intricately-aligned, well-thought-out buildings that are made of precisely-quarried stones that fit together like Lego bricks, sites that align perfectly to stars and celestial patterns/processions... and in many of these places we are talking about stones that are so many tons in weight that it's mind-boggling, not to mention the further mystery that comes from the fact that in some of these sites they use types of stone that aren't even close to the place of erection. They had to somehow transport these impossibly heavy stones vast distances in many cases.

Also, people have been using mortar of sorts for a long time. Of course they didn't have cement but they had equivalents.