Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
Remember those nifty Celebration VI exclusive art prints that have been previewed over the last month and change? They’re now available for pre-order!
You can pre-order one print per artist and must pick them up at Celebration VI in person. The name on the order must be the same as the person picking it up. To get your print, head over to the official pre-order page.
Reader, podcast listener, costumer, Pop Culture Shock writer, and all-around-awesome-person Bria sent us another costume for our Replace Mara’s Catsuit contest. Her inspiration for this entry came from the Allegiance and Choices of One covers.
Sleeves! Pockets! A jacket! Armor! To see other pictures of the costume, head on over to Bria’s photobucket.
We really dig the costume, Bria. Thanks for sending it in! Remember, you’ve got until August 15th to submit your art and costume entries for a chance to win some books featuring Mara Jade.
Over on Reddit today, former Expanded Universe author R.A. Salvatore is conducting an Ask Me Anything. One intrepid redditor asked the author his thoughts on fan fiction in light of the hardline stance other authors have taken against it (*cough*GRRM*cough*). His response? Rather positive.
I am supposed to tell you that it’s evil and wretched and destroys anything and everything I’ve ever tried to accomplish.
Truth is, this is supposed to be fun and entertaining, and when I hear about fan fiction using my characters, or when I see variations of my characters running around in an MMO, I think it’s the coolest thing ever. Truly flattering. Now, I can’t read the fan fiction, for obvious reasons, nor can I consider it “canon,” but I’m still flattered.
What a remarkably positive and honest answer! To read his answers to other questions (and perhaps to ask your own), head over to his AMA thread.
Earlier this year, The Old Republic went free-to-play until level fifteen. Yesterday, it was announced that the game would be modified further by offering a restricted free-to-play model to level 50 and an unrestricted subscription model. The dinstinction from BioWare’s press release:
Subscription – A service designed for players who want unrestricted access to all the game features via ongoing subscription or by redeeming a Game Time Card. In addition to gaining access to all game content as our current subscribers do now, subscribers will receive ongoing monthly grants of Cartel Coins, the new virtual currency that will be introduced later this fall. Cartel Coins can be used to purchase valuable in-game items including customizable gear and convenience features that will enhance the game play experience.
Free-To-Play – The first 50 levels will be Free-to-Play, with restrictions on access to new content and advanced player features. Some restrictions can be “unlocked” with Cartel Coins.
BioWare also provided the following chart to explain the difference between the two game models:
In addition, purchase price of the game itself will be lowered to $15 starting on August 7th. In all, this looks like a good thing for people who are curious about the game but didn’t want to be tied down by a monthly subscription. Still, why is BioWare and Electronic Arts taking this drastic step in restructuring how the MMO is played and paid for? The unfortunate answer appears to be rapidly falling subscriber numbers.
Electronic Arts has revealed that the number of people paying to play its online video game Star Wars: The Old Republic has dropped below one million.
The title is the US firm’s biggest investment to date.
Launched in December, it initially attracted more than 1.7m subscribers.
The firm said the news was “disappointing” adding that it was switching to a new pricing plan which would allow users to access much of the content for free.
While the new free-to-play model is good for gamers, this appears to be more bad news for BioWare and Electronic Arts. Hopefully this new pricing model will allow The Old Republic to avoid the same fate as the Galaxies.
Picture from http://kellykerrigan.blogspot.com/
I was watching my local news last night, when Channel 4 highlighted artist Kelly Kerrigan, whose pop culture art puts a twist on your typical Star Wars and geek art by combining some of the meanest villains of the Empire and some of the cuddliest critters to be found on Earth, as well as other, more varied ways of depicting our favorite characters. You can take a look at the story from Channel 4 in the upper right-hand corner of Channel 4’s page, and you can check out all of Kerrigan’s artwork (and even order ones you like!) at her website, kellykerrigan.blogspot.com. (Personally, I really want the Iron Man and bunny portrait for my best friend.)
If you happen to be in the Metro Nashville area, stop by The Arcade, where Kerrigan’s paintings will be displayed in the upcoming weeks.
It’s Tuesday, and that means you suckers are barely 2/5ths of the way through the work week. So why don’t we alleviate the tedium by diving into Tosche Station’s favorite waste-of-time on the web, TV Tropes! This week, we’re taking a look at the Villainous Breakdown:
The tendency of relatively calm and composed villains to lose their cool over the course of the story. Usually happens to arrogant Chessmaster-typevillains (especially if said villain is a Smug Snake), as control of the situation slips from his or her grasp and things come up that they Didn’t See Coming. Most notable when it happens towards the end of the story to show how pathetic the Big Bad is when things are not going exactly as planned (“This Cannot Be!!”). Especially apparent if they previously had Creepy Monotone or Dissonant Serenity, and suddenly start Chewing the Scenery(when they do this because their plan is succeeding, it’s more of a case of Drunk on the Dark Side). Thus, a Villainous Breakdown is frequently a trigger for a One-Winged Angel transformation.
Similar to Oh Crap, though the difference lies in that Oh Crap moments involve a single moment where the character finds that they are screwed, while Villainous Breakdowns have them see it coming from miles away. The good-guy counterpart is the Heroic BSOD.
Since we’ve been tying these tropes into the X-Wing series lately, let’s take a look at the two primary villains from the first seven books. Through the Stackpole novels, there was Ysanne Isard. There were a few moments in The Bacta War that were textbook examples of this trope in motion, such as the instance where she flips the frak out when one of her Star Destroyer captains defects to the New Republic. Meanwhile in the Allston novels, we have Solo Command, which is pretty much Warlord Zsinj’s Villainous Breakdown stretched out brilliantly over the course of the novel.
When things go bad for villains, they go really bad.
Yesterday the CVI staff announced that Warwick Davis, better known for playing Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi, will be in attendance.
Film and television actor, and seasoned Celebration host, Warwick Davis will attend Celebration VI, signing autographs and meeting fans in the Celebration Autograph Hall as well as appearing on stage to share stories about his fascinating career, and entertain questions from the audience.
Davis has been well known to Star Wars fans since his career-starting performance as Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi, and in the television films Ewoks: Battle for Endor and Caravan of Courage. The young actor moved to a leading role soon after, portraying the title character in Willow. Warwick returned to the galaxy far far away starting in 1997 with several roles in The Phantom Menace.
Outside of the realms of Star Wars, Davis has had scores of roles on stage, television, and the big screen. He was recently seen in a new comedy sitcom for the BBC with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant titled Life’s Too Short. Davis is in the core cast of the Harry Potter movies as Filius Flitwick and the Goblin bank teller, and portrayed Nikabrik in Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian. He is a cult favorite as the evil title character in six Leprechaun films. Davis appeared alongside David Bowie inLabyrinth, with Jamie Foxx in the multi-award-winning film Ray, and alongside Ricky Gervais in TV’s Extras.
(Via)
Meanwhile, Mary Franklin tweeted this last night …
My nine feet of awesome has become 10 1/2. Very sneaky surprises slipped in. Wonder if anyone will notice?
— Mary Franklin (@MaryLFL) July 31, 2012
While more awesome at CVI is great, I’m a little bummed that 10.5 Feet of Awesome doesn’t quite have the same ring as Nine Feet of Awesome.
Finally, if you’re going to be attending one of the summer/fall fan conventions this year, you should hop on over to Club Jade and read Dunc’s advice for con-goers. Seriously guys, good shoes. Get ’em.
Have we convinced you to read the X-Wing books yet? We Have? Then good news!
You can buy the original nine novels in an eBook format bundle today for $56.99, a 20% discount over buying them individually. If you’re considering picking these books up for the first time or are long-time fans that simply wish to save your poor paperback copies wear-and-tear, you can get the bundle for Amazon’s Kindle or Barnes and Noble’s Nook.
While you’re at it, why don’t you pre-order X-Wing: Mercy Kill as well?
Reader Robert sent in another art entry for our Replace Mara’s Catsuit contest. This time around we get to see Mara in combat armor, something that I daresay is quite a bit more appropriate in the field than a leather catsuit.
Robert submitted several sketches in this PDF, so download it and take a look!
In an e-mail sent out to Celebration VI attendees earlier today, it was disclosed that the event program schedule will be released first on the Celebration mobile app. If you have a smartphone or a tablet, you may want to go download it now if you haven’t already.
Mary Franklin also teased this. Get to it, cryptologists.
Math clue for 2 new CVI programs: Multiply me by 2, or remove the zero and add a D.
— Mary Franklin (@MaryLFL) July 27, 2012
(via)