Daria video game (was re: daria on psx?)

In article , "The Outsider" wrote:

There hasn't been any news as to its contents that I have found, but gaming editors are already convinced it's not a good idea.

What SHOULD the Daria game be? If MTV is smart, they'll look onto this group and take suggestions. Come on, people!

When cartoon franchises become video games, they tend to make some crap thing based on the latest gaming crazes using existing game engines so as to crank out something quickly. South Park ended up being like Doom/Quake. Rugrats and Disney shows end up being dumb 3D platformers. We don't want Daria becoming a lame-ass game!! In order to get a wide sale, game magazine editors would have to like it. This means making some sort of original, fiendishly addictive gameplay. Something non-linear and unpredictable but leaving the player wanting more. Nowhere in the game should Daria have to "jump" or do a "butt bounce" to vanquish a moving plant with teeth.

Here's my ideas: It shouldn't be in 3D. Playstation games are always in 3D, even cartoon show translations, and mostly they suck. If it is in 3D, they'd have to make flat color models, like in Fear Effect. I've seen 3D models colored in a fashion so as to look like 2D animation. Plus, the backgrounds would have to be flatly colored, too.

I think it has to be completely original. Maybe a mystery game that would be insanely difficult because the interviewees are people like Kevin and Britanny. I can see Daria becoming a game is if it was like Virtual Springfield or Myst. There's also the possibility of an interactive movie type game, like the TurboDuo version of It Came From the Desert. I played the Duo version of 'It Came' for months, because every time I played it some new video would show up if I did something different. It was very linear, but I'd always find new easter eggs every time I played and got better at the battles and made different choices as to who to talk to. The general idea of 'It Came' was that you had so and so number of days to stop an alien invasion, and you had different people and parts of town to go talk to. You only had a set amount of turns before mid day and finally evening, and there were hundreds of possibities. The characters were amazingly fun to interact with and watch (even though the arcade action parts sucked).

I can even imagine a "Sentient"(unsure of title) or "rise of the dragon" type 'interview' game, where you could ask a plethora of questions to anyone and the game would react differently to your actions, and some random events could occur, too. Games like this tend to be fun. Lots of time, you're not even sure what the plot is, but it would slowly creep up on you and grab you. They'd have to get the voice actors to read hundreds of possible lines and outcomes - it would be great.

http://animation.acmecity.com/model/347/main.html Visit this page. It is full of great cartoon art!

I see Daria being depicted as a lethargic version of Lara Croft myself.

-Shez.

Yikes, if that were to be, they'd have to bring back the Daria from the pilot.

My vision of a Daria video game would actually be several different kinds of games, to satisfy ALL the gamers with different taste buds:

A 3D Gorefest version vith Daria and crew blowing each other up (Not like South Park, they used non-lethal weapons, BTW)

A Tetris version with Daria and crew in the background (Actually, you could just download my Tetrinet plugin and you'd get the same results)

A beat-em-up version with the kids rumbling in the school hallways (I'm actually working on that, BTW).

Of course, it doesn't have to be limited to the conscious realm, either. Daria could be a Jumping Flash clone or a Metal Gear Solid clone, or maybe even a Resident Evil clone, and it'd just be a long dream sequence (Still worth the price of admission). ----- In my opinion, though, Buster's vision of a Rise-of-the-Dragon type game would be ideal (I have that for Sega CD) for Daria and crew. Everything that you'd do would affect how the game progresses, and the timing is EXTREMELY important. But to add a little extra spice, borrow a page from Pokemon Gold and Silver and have the player set the clock when starting a new game, and after the virtual day ends, you have to quit for the actual day. And have the game run for two or three months of game time. I'm telling ya's, lots of replay value here.

Here's another brainstorm: Make it an ongoing series of CDs where the player would have to buy the next CD to see what happens next (Like a comic book) after the first CD ends. ------ If there's any other ideas for the game, keep 'em coming. If we can help MTV come up with ideas, then all the more reason to jump in.

player

book)

Exactly! That's why I like the Zork series. (The newer, cooler, graphics ones, not the less cool text-only.) While the next title isn't exactly a continuation of the previous, it still keeps some of the same running gags, locations, and people. Of course, the Daria game could be more continuous than Zork with hopefully more options for character interaction. Maybe there could be multiple "worlds" where Daria's adventures take place in different times/locations (such as ancient Egypt as a queen or a soldier in the Civil War). Not necessarily "Time Traveler Daria" but more like "Daria's Past Lives." Well that's my two cents...

-----> Violator's Toad <-----

In article , "The Outsider" wrote:

You bring up an interesting point, actually. It would be cool if you had a whole buncha mini games that you could play. Maybe it could be like N64's Mario Party - a *board* game with Daria characters. You rol dice and if you landed on certain spots, you'd have to do interesting mini games or skip a turn or whatever.

Or at least some sort of virtual reality game like they had in 'the new kid'.

Whoa, excellent idea, man. Yeah, I totally think that having a dialogue based "thinker" game would be appropriate. Basically, a really complex puzzle/life-simulation game using dialogue and emotion rather than moving blocks and balls. These have an unusually high replay value because they'll have all types of different endings and such, depending on what you did and how you acted. The RPG Star Ocean 2 has this strange 'emotion rating' that affects the ending of the game, depending on how close you got to a certain character because of how you spoke to them during the game. Who knows, maybe it could even play out to a 'shippers fantasy if they made it so. Hey, they make *dating* simulation games in Japan, it's not too farfetched an idea.

I *think* the game is called sentient, but there's this psx game that had you wandering around a space station. You could control your facial expression and you had a *huge* menu of questions that you could ask each character you bumped into. There was this thing you had to do, but it wasn't spelled out to you. You wander around until you realize that there's actually some disaster supposed to happen. Supposedly, they also threw in something into the engine where events were randomized, making it different each time. In Daria, I can imagine also having a menu of witty questions and replies.

Mix that up with character animation and the actual voices from the cartoon and you've got yourself a winner. I'd hate to see the game turn into a bad cliche. It would have to be just as witty as the show. I'd rather the plot be more subtle like the show, rather than what usually happens when cartoons are made into games (usually some worldly disaster or something else that totally breaks away from the show's general mood and continuity). That kind of thing usually makes me want to stay away from show based games. I mean, they made a Micheal Jordan AND a Shaq game with them using their basketball powers to fight monsters. Let's NOT have that happen to Daria. The game HAS to be original and fun enough that non-Daria fans would go and buy it.

Yes, people, please! They've already announced that it would be done. Maybe it's not too late to sway their opinion on how to make it. This is going to be something we'll want to buy and I don't want to buy crap!

On Fri, 29 Oct 1999 01:53:56 +0100, Shez wrote:

I would like to take this moment to say how much I love your site, shez.

Kyle, he who means well The Manny Alexander of alt.sports.baseball.chicago.cubs

Kyle of writes:

Thanks! Is that the Halloween version or the regular one, or just in general. The Halloween version has spent the last year hiding behind an asterisk on one of my usual pages.

I sometimes think I spend way too much time on it, like I've been tweaking the Daria's Dream page almost continuously since it first went up on Thursday (the final pics didn't have captions to start with, but I decided that was a mistake). And now I've embarked on a "the making of Daria's dream" bit, a quasi stream of consciousness thing which has been an excuse for some thorough mixing of the metaphors. (The "making of..." bit can only be reached from the Daria homepage BTW, <URL: http://www.xerez.demon.co.uk/daria/f>)

-Shez.

Shez of the Last Stop Cafe writes:

Sorry an "f" seems to have crept into that URL, it should have read <URL: http://www.xerez.demon.co.uk/daria/>

-Shez.

On Sat, 30 Oct 1999 03:00:49 +0100, Shez wrote:

Both!

Kyle, he who means well The Manny Alexander of alt.sports.baseball.chicago.cubs

with or without the football tits?

On Sat, 30 Oct 1999 22:20:16 +0100, "endless, nameless" wrote:

I have a small amount of trouble conceiving any situation in which the answer to that question would be "without".

Kyle, he who means well The Manny Alexander of alt.sports.baseball.chicago.cubs

Oh c'mon ... we can't have Daria with big boobies. It just wouldn't be HER!

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)

On 30 Oct 1999 22:44:51 GMT, [email] (Jordan S. Bassior) wrote:

Would she be less intelligent? Less witty? Less interesting? Less moral?

Okay, maybe I'm just being mean.

Kyle, he who means well The Manny Alexander of alt.sports.baseball.chicago.cubs

Kyle said:

Of course not. Less balanced though. Physically, I mean.

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)

On 31 Oct 1999 04:22:15 GMT, [email] (Jordan S. Bassior) wrote:

Hah hah *cough* *cough*. Good one Jordan. :)

Damon Orca on #Stars!

if they were of lara croft proportions, less realistic, perhaps.

Alli said:

An appearance that physically extreme would be bound to affect people's reactions to her and thus have an effect on her personality.

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)

On 30 Oct 1999 22:57:28 GMT, herecomethehawks@hockeymail.....com (Kyle) wrote:

No no yes no.

I admit it's petty (and abnormal,) but gargantuan proportions turn me off.

Back in 1997 I started working on a Daria DOOM wad. Where Daria and Jane go around blasting their classmates. along with Beavis And Butthead with realistic weapons.

But when kids in your country started blowing away their classmates on a daily basis I decided it was innapropriate.

Would their be adaquate intrest for me to complete this project or would it be seen as inapropriate and open me up to 6 months of Flames?

Trevor Morris

In article , "Trevor Morris" wrote:

WOOHOO!!! Do it!!!!

I would particularly enjoy it if it was Doom II compliant.

--.\\<-H--

PS: get around my spamblocker and I can give you specific ideas about monsters, etc.

Trevor Morris said:

Do you mean that:

• Beavis and Butthead help them blast people?

• They blast people including Beavis and Butthead?, or

• Among the weapons they blast people with ARE Beavis and Butthead?

Hey! School massacres are optional assignments in our country. You can also do book reports or dioramas ...

I'd be amused at it's existence, though I'm not into Doom much me-self.

I do NOT believe that violent videogames are reasponsible for real-life violence. The kind of people who want to be violent and can't distinguish reality from videogames would have just been inspired by something else if the videogames were not there. Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)

Trevor Morris wrote in message ...

You gotta do what you gotta do. But when it comes to a crossroad-decision, there are times when you and you alone can decide which way something goes. Take me for example, I've been debating on whether or not it'd be worth the time and aggrivation to make a Quake 2 level (Plus models & skins) based on the infamous franchise (For some reason, the map editors keep crashing on me, hence the aggrivation).

There's always going to be people that think you did the wrong thing, there's no escaping that.

On Sun, 31 Oct 1999 18:13:24 GMT, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from "Trevor Morris" , and it said:

Actually, I think it would be inappropriate because Daria and Jane would never actually do this. Write about it, fantasize about it (more Jane than Daria), but I don't think either of them would actually have any reason, real or percieved to go about shooting classmates. Who are they going to shoot? Jodie? Nope. Kevin? What did he ever do to them (aside from be a complete moron in their presence, which can be taken as free entertainment with the proper attitude)? Maybe Upchuck, but he doesn't deserve death. Perhaps the DJs deserve to get shot, but they're just extras. Only the Fashion Club qualify, and even then, it would be better to divide and conquer than to utterly obliterate.

• Tarvok (UIN 37083068) http://members.xoom.com/Tarvok remove NOSPAM to reply via E-mail Ap D+ T3 Wn Q++ FN^FR O Os m c- MV- C5X F102,209,308 BB+ FCJ +DT++ q FS:p

Due to his present occupation, the author doesn't often read messages. If you want him to actually see the reply, please e-mail it to him.

Tarvok wrote in message news:[email]...

I would be worried that it might have an effect on the way _Daria_ is perceived.

We already know some people with larger mouths than brains have been slagging off the series, but if they, and the tabloid press, got hold of a Daria-themed Doom, the resultant ill-informed howling might be enough to persuade MTV to cancel the show.

But it's your call, Trevor.

Martin.

On Mon, 1 Nov 1999 09:44:45 -0000, "Martin Sylvester" wrote:

I seriously doubt that one. Firstly, there have been DOOM WADs for a ton of stuff that were ignored by the media because they're so obscure. Secondly, I doubt MTV would cancel the show under this kind of pressure. Most likely they would just ride the free publicity, like many other musical types do. (just look how those kinds of people have made Marelyn Manson's carear.

<He who can't spell now>

Hey! We don't deserve that! Let's not go around just randomly blasting DJ's!

DJ (Suddenly feeling slightly paranoid)

On 01 Nov 1999 05:20:06 GMT, [email] (Wammy2) wrote:

<southpark> He's coming right for us Ned! </southpark>

On the mountaintop, "Trevor Morris" spake thusly:

Complete the project! Just because some students in America have problems doesn't mean the rest of us are going to start blowing people away with a shotgun because of some Daria wad.

You know, that really burns me. Ever since the school shootings have been brought to light in the media, we students have all been seen as potential threats if we're not perfectly stereotypical "good kids," if we dare to be different or independent of the shallow and superficial norm. Has anyone heard of this "profiling" thing that's being introduced now? Students who have "exhibited symptoms of antisocial behavior such as colored hair, dressing in dark clothes, or 'loner' tendecies" are targeted for interviews with themselves, parents, teachers, etc., to see if they're about to go Columbine. This disturbs me _deeply,_ and I really hope I'm not alone.

-Mindy She who fears for her rights in a school with more security guards than counselors

"I think I'm a mushroom... I must be a mushroom! Everyone keeps me in the dark and feeds me bulls***!" -Ward Rubrecht

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

On Mon, 01 Nov 99 22:35:37 GMT, [email] (Mindy) wrote:

What's all the more galling, is that while the profile of deadly incidents has gone up (way up), the number of lethal and nonlethal incidents has been *falling*. Statistically speaking, America's schools are extremely safe. Consider how many millions of students are currently enrolled in the US public education system, and then think about the scale of the last high school shooting. And then compare THAT with the last 30->60 something person who went nuts and started shooting people...

Damon Orca on #Stars!

On Mon, 01 Nov 1999 23:29:26 GMT, [email] (Damon Domjan) wrote:

Aye. It's just fear-mongering, combined with the fact that those who are being brutal are getting more... shocking.

It stands to reason - they too learn from the past. What was once pushing the edge of brutality is now, to the future serial killers, a place to start from.

Mindy wrote in message news:[email]...

dressing

Columbine.

"We noticed you seem a little alienated, so we've arranged for some additional alienation for you. Okay? We'll also help your peers get a little more suspicious and fearful of you, if that's all right."

They'll be compelling them to take special self-esteem classes next! ;:-)

I wonder if it's driven by a fear of litigation. Seeking a defence against negligence, they do something, however ill-considered, rather than nothing. Shouldn't educators know their students without having to target some of them for interview?

I'm so pleased I went to a small school, where the staff knew all the students, rather than some overpopulated place where they resort to profiling to decide which students certain specialists pay attention to.

Question: does economy of scale apply in education?

Eep. We didn't have a security guard. Nor a counselor. Just teachers. Was I deprived?

Or was the fact that not one of the teachers could dismiss as "Someone else's problem" the security of the students, and the students' mental and emotional health, actually a benefit?

Posing the questions, having no answers, Martin.

On the mountaintop, "Martin Sylvester" spake thusly:

*laughs* Exactly. Good thing Bradford's not doing this... yet...

Ideally, yes, but in America's overcrowded school system not even the few teachers who care more about the students than their paychecks can know every student. I go to a high school with two thousand other students. There is no possible way for every one of us to be known by a teacher; indeed, most of us are just passed over by an uncaring system that just wants to get us out of the building so they'll have less overcrowding worries.

Economy of scale? *baffled* Explain to the poor froshie, please?

No, you were lucky. Very lucky. Is it normal for UK schools to have counselors or security guards at all, or do they actually treat y'all like adults?

A benefit. Definitely. Although specialists may be more qualified, they're never truly used to the best extent they could be; those students who need them usually refuse to see them, and if they're forced are uncooperative. Students who are not in dire need usually don't see them at all. At least, that's how it's worked in Kenosha.

-Mindy Active in a thread... run for the hills!

Economics. As you scale up a process, manufacturing, whatever, there are advantages to being big. Tools can be used to make a lot of pieces just as well as only a few, so the cost of those tools can be spread over more units. Workers can specialize more, improving efficiency. All sorts of efficiencies present themselves when you know you're going to be doing things in a big way. End result: You can produce more product at a lower cost per unit. This only works up to a point though. After the organization gets too big to manage it can become more inefficient.

In answer to the question, I'd guess: yes, there are economies of scale in education. A large school system can have more varied course offerings, Latin for example, as they'll be more likely to fill the class the more students there are in the system. They can justify expenditures for more sophisticated educational materials as they'll be used by more students.

On the mountaintop, "R. K. Henry" spake thusly:

Aaaaaah. Mindy sees now. Thanks muchly.

Yes, but there's also the fact that students "fall through the cracks" _very_ easily. And bureaucracy. Our main office building takes up an entire ex-department store, and they're having to build _another_ building to house all the offices stuff. It takes absolutely _forever_ to get anything done or changed. Which can be good or bad, now that I think about it...

-Mindy Who really ought to be studying for finals

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

little

against

nothing.

every > student. I go to a high school with two thousand other students. There is no

us

of

Don't you have some kind of form of teacher, who may or may not teach you for any lessons, but whose job it is to know a relatively small group (20-35) of you? That happens in the UK....

Froshie? *baffled* Explain to the poor womble, please?

I

Dunno about counsellors, but not many schools here have security guards, as far as I know....where I go has no security guards, one counsellor, and one attitude person. We also have peer-counsellors, who are especially Jodie-like pupils, which is no bad thing, for those who don't want to see the counsellor.

and

they're

least,

I dunno, I was kinda urged to see the "motivation specialist" a year back (This was during the great self-destructive school-year of 98/99). I didn't like the idea, but I got to miss Gym (Y'know how in See Jane Run the Gym lessons were a cheerleading practice? Our gym lessons are rowing practices. What kindof a stupid sport is rowing anyway?) so I agreed to try it out. It did actually help quite a bit.

By the way, I just heard the music that everyone seems to like from the end of "ill" on home and away. woo-woo-woo!

On the mountaintop, "Greg Pallis" spake thusly: <snippers>

We have an "advisory" time, during our third period, in which the instructor is supposed to try and play school counselor, but this has _never_ to my knowledge been used as anything except class time.

Freshman. Person in their first year of high school, or the the ninth grade. Usually 14-15 years of age.

Sounds quite nice, actually... I _really_ hate being harassed by the security guards all the time; they're all weird Italian guys, and it is Not Nice to have their eyes always on you.

I'm glad it worked out for you. :)

Coolness! *personally loves "What Do You Want From Me," by Monaco, during Daria's transformation scene in Quinn the Brain*

-Mindy "Give me something that I can rely on far away from the life that I once knew."

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

i thought that was just to take the register. i never get there in time for registration anyhow. i was actually on time yesterday.. my form tutor's reaction was, "ahh, you *are* alive! we haven't seen you here for weeks!"

we don't have counsellors or security guards. i thought that *security guards for schools* thing was just a joke.. errr i take it it isn't.

On the mountaintop, [email] spake thusly: <snippero>

Not in America, it isn't.

-Mindy

"I think I'm a mushroom... I must be a mushroom! Everyone keeps me in the dark and feeds me bulls***!" -Ward Rubrecht

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

am laughing.. that's mad, that is.. weird. security guards in schools... lol. why? and do they beat up the pupils? do they have guns? lol... that's really weird. i'm going to ask my american friend scott whether his previous school had security guards. crazy americans. ;)

to keep juniors/sophomores/freshman from going off campus for lunch.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

Dagny said:

Such depravity MUST be kept under control, after all ...

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)

why aren't you allowed off campus? at my school you can go out of school at lunch if you get a lunch pass, which has to be signed by a parent and teacher. in the 6th form you don't need one... we are *supposed* to stay in school for our free periods (until after easter or something) but this is not enforced very strongly.

well you have to have a certain number of rules to keep our administration busy. you need administrators to keep track of the rules. And then they can make money from charging you too much for crappy food in the cafeteria.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

On the mountaintop, [email] spake thusly:

I've heard some horror stories, but mostly they just "escort" students someplace. And I haven't really looked, although I doubt they do... the cops who wander around the halls on occasion do, however.

Yep. We're just chock full of insane goodness.

-Mindy

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

i *hope* that's a joke.. :)

yes you are. ;)

On the mountaintop, [email] spake thusly:

I really, really wish it was.

And that's why you love us... right?

-Mindy Finals tomorrow, yecccccccch...

"I think I'm a mushroom... I must be a mushroom! Everyone keeps me in the dark and feeds me bulls***!" -Ward Rubrecht

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

So, how'd you do?

-- alli: blehh. eughh. nahh. :P Mindy: Does my female minotaur character.... (note: there are definite advantages to dating your DM)

On the mountaintop, "Greg Pallis" spake thusly:

Pretty well, I think; I won't know for sure until next week sometime.

I had her before I was dating Randy, but he only let me have her 'cause he had a crush on me at the time and didn't want to screw up his chances, I think.

-Mindy

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

We had a bunch of cops wandering around school after Littleton (which was, incidently, around the same time as Prom, Science Olympiad State Competition, the MEAP test, and a friend of mine having a mental breakdown) ... anyhow this cop came into my German classroom sometime we were discussing... not German. Canterbury Tales, speech codes, socialism, something. And all of us especially Christian and Brian are like "eeep... I didn't do it...." (thinking that) but he just talked to Frau while we sat in terror.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

Dagny said:

Hmm ... why Christian and Brian in particular? And what was on YOUR conscience, heh heh heh?

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)

They probably had something on their consciences.

I was paranoid about the paranoia about Littleton. I was a perfect target y'know

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

In article , [email] wrote:

Well, waaaaayyyyy back in '96, when schools were considered slightly safe, my high school had a security guard, which was basically a lady equipped with a walkie-talkie and a golf cart, in which she could ride around the parking lot to make sure no one tried to skip. In 1997, they introduced something called Code Blue, in which the principal would announce over the P.A. that Code Blue was in effect, and all the teachers had to lock the classroom doors, cover the little skinny windows on the doors, and turn off the lights. If you were for some reason in the hallway during Code Blue you were supposed to look for members of the Code Blue squad, dressed helpfully in blue vests, to escort you to safety. It was pretty ridiculous, and then, everyone treated it as such. (Although I always considered yelling "Code Blue" as a possible method of getting rid of large congregations of people who lounged around in thin hallways.) But luckily I graduated that year; Code Blue turned out to be just the beginning of the insanity...

Umm, 'scuse me if I'm wrong, but isn't a 'Code Blue' what you call in a hospital when someone's trying very hard to shuffle off his mortal coil? Kevin, can you help me out here? 'Cause if so, it adds yet another level of humor to the whole mess. ;-)

Tice Rust wrote:

code rich.

Helen: Bureaucracy is the price we pay for impartiality.

Jake: Jefferson!

Helen: Stalin.

Yes, most hospitals use "Code Blue" to indicate that an emergency resuscitation is needed somewhere other than the Emergency Department. Some don't. The one I deal most frequently just calls "Anesthesia STAT". The only time you need that is when someone either just quit breathing, or is trying to. But, yes, if I were in a school situation, I'd find it ironic. Or moronic.

On the topic of economies of scale in education, here in Pennsylvania, school consolidation was forced on local communities by the state courts in the 1950s. It didn't result in better education, but it let a few more kids play football. (Really small schools sometimes didn't have enough boys to have a football team). Not only did school consolidation not improve education, it destroyed the sense of community identity in many of the proud old mining towns that dotted the landscape hereabout until the coal was all mined out.

And, on to school security: The place where I went to high school (and where my kids go now) was opened in 1973, my sophomore year, complete with an armed guard at the gate, maintenece workers equipped with CB radios (until the popular "CB craze" drove them off the air in 1975) patrolling the roofs, and a sixteen-foot-high chain link fence topped with razor wire surrounding the whole complex. Some of it was for a good reason: there was a large state mental institution right across the street. It's since been closed, and the razor wire has come off the fence and the guard is no longer armed. But the library is still equipped with entry alarms, and you still need to request to use it. There will be no unauthorized exposure to knowledge here. There are two security guards on each floor. The guards are generally people who have failed to pass the selection tests for local police departments. They're cop wannabes. I met the current assistant principal last year. I really *did* have to restrain myself from calling her "Ms. Li." (Ha! There is a TDR in this post!) The whole thing struck me as absurd twenty five years ago, and it's only gotten worse. It now strikes me as perverse.

Peace Kevin

Well, then, a success in the minds of most...

Well our school has no reason to need security but we have library fascists. You need a "library pass" to go into to the library (a totally seperate thing from the simple "hall pass"), there are lots of rules about "DO NOT GO TO THE LIBRARY DURING LUNCH" (heavens forbid) and they have developed some terribly complex weird rules about the use of the copy machine.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

....

Damn right! Books are dangerous things. Before the invention of the Internet, libraries are where kids used to go to learn how to make poisons and explosives and so on. I remember sitting in the school library reading up on how nitroglycerine is made. These days of course the Internet has taken over from the Library as the fount of all evil.

-Shez.

And now that libraries have Internet, they're the source of pornography for our children! At last if you ask the Good (heheh) People of Fremont. Come to the Library and Celebrate Internet Porn Week!

and they still have dirty books like that ruby hat one...

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

my school's got 750-odd students, which is perhaps too many for every teacher to know every student, but most of the teachers know *most* students by name. at 14 i was singled out as having low self-esteem on the basis that my marks had dropped, i didn't say anything in class, and i didn't wear make-up (lol.. note that make-up is against school rules at that age). they may have judged accurately, but the fact that they didn't bother about the self-esteem of the *under-performers* (many of whom probably didn't think much of themselves either) completely invalidated any claims along the lines of "we care about our students."

Mindy wrote in message news:[email]...

dressing

Columbine.

You're not alone. You're at the end of a long line. This isn't about violence, it's about conformity. Public schools are about nothing but conformity. Every student must be like every other. Those people who fall too far outside the limits of variation foul up the process--people like you--and like me--and like just about everyone else on this newsgroup. Because we're just too different. And worst of all, damnit, we're proud of it! This irritates the managerial types at the school no end. They simply can't deal with us different ones. They don't give a damn about the potential of violence, they're just worried about the fact that there are people who aren't the same as everyone else. That's the only thing that bothers them. The violence issue just offers them another excuse to go on yet another anti-different witch-hunt. If it weren't violence they'd find some other issue, trust me, they've done it many times before.

"Curse you different ones and your insideous logic!"

R. K. Henry wrote in message ...

Conformity, hate, mind-control, violence, and pettiness are the symptoms of a vile educational disease. A disease called "Mainstreamism".

Conformity, because they do everything they can to make you be like them. School-smokers, the army, school sports teams, and politics. It's all about conformity, in EVERY culture, in EVERY sense.

Hate, because they make you hate what's different like everyone else.

Mind-Control, because when you control what a person can or cannot openly say, then you have officially controlled human thought.

Violence, people fear it, people can't contain it, people can't control it, people can't even localize the cause of it.

Pettiness, because people feel that only they can have something that others should have too. This actually starts in grade school. Where bullies beat on those that are smaller. "Survival of the fittest" they call it. If you're tougher than this other guy, then you have the right to learn at this school. It's strange behavior, but that's how it's always been.

People say that people grow out of these unhealthy things. Whoever thought of this philosophy must have been tripping on some bad acid. People can't cope with the fact that they're not the only kind of people around, so they make the other people look bad just to further themselves (Kinda like aliens). "Rumors of war and no one cares". This quote was actually from the Bible itself. Strange coincidence? I think not. War is already breaking out, and this time it's a war of words and propaganda. As strange as it sounds, the conformists believe that "If you're not with us, you're against us", and if you're against them, they'll make your life a living hell, just enough to make you want to quit so that the conformists can be the only ones there.

Dominince, control, one voice, one face.

It's a sick and grotesque picture when you put all the pieces together, isn't it?

or at least repressed it...

Or just a combination of denial and self-righteousness coming with age.

Very odd. They think anyone not one of them want to destroy society when its just they don't want to be bothered & want to live their own life

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

On Tue, 2 Nov 1999 05:27:15 -0500, "The Outsider" wrote:

The army is, actually, one of very few institutions where I can forgive that.

Weird, though... the tough guys tend to spend their time proving their tough, rather than learning. Forsaking the 'right' they struggle so hard to 'earn.'

No. That person was just... a surface-thinker. He noted that the methods changed, but didn't see that the results and intentions remained.

I need more of that in my life. Looking back, I've noticed that the quality of my work has degraded as my social standing increased; it seems that I only put effort into something when I'm being told that I'm 'no good.'

For any student of history, change is the law of life. Any attempt to contain it guarantees an explosion down the road; the more rigid the adherence to the status quo, the more violent the ultimate outcome will be. - Henry Kissinger, "Years of Renewal"

Kaos said:

Which is why they don't belong in schools.

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)

my psychology teacher was saying the other week to me, something along the lines of that he'd noticed i was proud of my *difference*... "i've seen you giving other members of the class disdainful glances.".... lol how observant. ;)

You should tell him to watch Daria! I wonder what he'd make of her attitude.

-Shez.

Oh, trust me, you're not alone. I responded to that almost immediately, and so did Mike, and he's not even school-age (he's 43) ... it's any excuse to attack outcasts because they don't have any special interest groups- they're outcasts. duuh. But if they were black or something they wouldn't make that connection. But wear a black trenchcoat, now THAT'S a connection.

As a result we have all this paranoia and it SUCKS. It's accusing of death threats anyone weird and all that and suspending people for THREATENING TO WEAR black trenchcoats. Grrr... and I had to pay for Betsey's prom ticket because Chad was suspended.

I read in Psychology Today this guy- high school senior- just sorta said offhand "If I fail this class, I'll be mad enough to kill." Teacher reported him to administration and he ended up in jail.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

On the mountaintop, [email] (Dagny Scott) spake thusly:

It bothered me very much when I was speaking with my local friends about this, and they just said, "Yeah... people like that need to be examined." I was really hoping a more intelligent and informed group of people would have opinions similar to mine (ego check!)... thanks, guys.

Ouch... 'spensive. Poor you... poor Chad.

-Mindy

Dagny said:

Absolutely. A lot of "insiders" are, IMHO, happy to have an excuse to pick on the "outsiders" _and feel morally justified doing so_.

Yeah, that'll keep them from being alienated. Keep them out of school for simply threatening to make a fashion statement. Not even making it ... just THREATENING to.

Was that what he was suspended for?

I must ask ... on what charge? That statement does not sound like a credible death threat; the police normally would refuse to arrest someone for making much more explicit threats, their usual excuse being "We can't do anything unless he actually does something", which is not true but does serve to lighten their workloads.

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)

Well obviously. Because they are interested in upholding the norms of society and thoroughly APALLED that some people... aren't, or have opposite missions. It's pretty scary to me Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

uhuhuhuh that would be cool :)

Which was blamed on doom....strange I've been playing Doom/Doom II (and Wolfenstein 3d before it :) ) for years now, and I havn't had the urge to go round blasting people.....though real people might shoot back and you can't just use IDDQD to go into god mode in real life :)

Yeah yeah do it....hey while you are about it, might be interesting if there where some Daria/Jane "Skins" for ZDoom (http://zdoom.notgod.com) so you could have players in multiplayer games looking like Daria/Jane etc.....would be fun.

Strange there still seems to be quite an online comunity of Doom people out there even after the release of more modern stuff like Quake...and all it's clones :) guess oldies that are goodies live on.....

<Vaguely Serious> Humm anyone up for a "Canibal Frag Fest" TC ???? </Vaguely Serious>

Phill.

/----------------[ Courage is Grace Under Pressure. ]--------------------\

\--------[ I Want to look at life, In the Available Light ]--------------/


On Sat, 30 Oct 1999 22:20:16 +0100, "endless, nameless" wrote:

Without. Daria may have more of a figure than she's given credit for, but she's not built like Brittany.

In article , Buster Logan wrote:

There is a GREAT model they should follow, and the fact of the matter is that the model already exists for it: "Beavis And Butt-Head: Virtual Stupidity".

1.) It was a devilishly challenging puzzle/scavenger hunt game masquerading as an interactive Beavis and Butt-Head episode,

2.) The dialogue, action and so forth were totally true to the show,

3.) There were these neat little mini-games that you could play when you got to the right place in Highland...my favorite is "Hock A Loogie" where either Butt-Head or Beavis (my choice) spits at targets in a shooting gallery fashion. It's a simple game but fun and spitting on bullies and Authority Figures kinda makes my day.

4.) The project manager on that game is at Simon and Schuster Interactive now, and is project manager on the soon-come "Daria Life Planner"...this tidbit from Glenn Eichler himself.

5.) The game almost completely runs off of your CD-ROM drive, leaving only a little prefs/stored games/"agree to the license" cookie file on your HD. It also doesn't require things like Direct X and 3D acceleration...it runs comfortably even on a 486.

Unfortunately the game is out of print, thanks to Viacom New Media going under about two years ago. GT Interactive, which re-released the four mini-games from the game and a few other B&B related games, has not optioned the rights to re-release the whole game AFAIK. Watch for copies on eBay.

However, as I mentioned in #4, the guy who "drew up the blueprint" on the game is now on the team for future Viacom-related software projects at S&S Interactive. He could probably reassemble the team and create something just as fun, but of course in a different spirit than B&B: VS.

The idea of the mini-games is something which should be reused in such a game. For example, a "Cannibal Fragfest" or "CyberKron" first-person shooter mini-game could lurk in Mr. Fun's Arcade.

I agree with the folks that say that 3D should be studiously avoided. It would not look like "Daria" if they went with 3D. Maybe one of the mini-games could blossom into 3D ala the Virtual Reality sequence in "The New Kid" (CyberKron, anyone?) but everything else should look as much like Cel animation as it can. B&B: VS kinda moved klunky and the graphics were rough-hewn, but face it, so was the show.

I did place a bug in Glenn Eichler's ear via email about all this, and that's when he told me about the original guy from VS working on DLP.

One more comment about such a game: I would want it to be developed in Director so it would be instantly portable to both Windows 32 Bit and Macintosh environments, as well as previewable as a Shockwave game on the Web. There is NOTHING on B&B: VS which couldn't have been done in Director even back when they released it, and Director 7 is way more powerful than the version of Director that was available in 1996.

One comforting note if it comes out for Playstation: I'll get the excuse I need to go out and buy me a copy of Virtual Game Station from Connectix for my G3.

--.\\<-H--

Michelle Klein-Hass wrote in message ...

The only objection I have to this is that Virtual Stupidity lacks real challenge. Once you know what to do in the game, when you find out what goes where, it'll only be a matter of time before it'll become uninteresting. In order to keep that from happening, you have to have some special replay value that grabs the player's attention every time. For example, even though Super Mario Bros. is fifteen years old, you are still capable of suddenly getting killed by a lowly Goomba, thereby increasing replay value.

As for the mini-games, to tell you the truth, I avoided the anthills, the tennis court, and the coffeehouse stage like the black plague after the first try (You can't really avoid the loogie game since it's part of the story), they just didn't catch my attention. Maybe if the tennis balls, the ants, the tennis players, the loogies, and the loogie-targets changed after ten or so levels, maybe I would have stayed.

I guess it WOULD be nice to know what CyberKron really is (But you never know, it could just be mechs moving crates for all we know).

How do you know that it wouldn't "be like Daria"? Don't tell me she jumped out of your TV again and discussed her views with you again....... :-)

No offense, but you don't give Beavis & Butt-Head enough credit.

Hey, there's a lot of great PSX games worth buying. For example, there's this one called Final Fantasy Anthology. It's one of the most popular RPG franchises this planet has ever produced. The graphics are mediocre for the PSX and there's no real violence (Believe it or not, kids, blood doesn't make a game), but it's got replay value (Again, replay value is VERY important).

Another example is the Resident Evil series. Sure, it's almost the same as Virtual Stupidity (Aside from blasting zombies and mutants with guns, you DO have to find objects and use them on other objects), but you're also being clocked the whole time. How fast could you finish a game without saving and without dying? THAT's a challenge, and a sucker for replay value (Yikes, three times. But then, three IS the charm)

When the powers that be decide to start on Daria PSX, they'll have to really know what they're doing. It will not be easy for Daria to grab the attention of the non-believers (And believe me, we're just 5% of vidiots the world-over).

On Sun, 31 Oct 1999 02:47:47 -0500, "The Outsider" wrote:

Butting in here... :)

<snip MKH's comments on B&B VS - I've never played the game so can't comment on it>

The main thing that will increase replay value is making the game multiplayer with a good multiplayer implementation. Look no further than Quake (any version). But I don't see Daria related video games being able to go that route successfully. Note that this isn't to say that I'm discarding single player games out of hand - because there are a lot of *extremely* good single player games out there (FF7 anyone?). Beyond that, all you can do is try to increase the fun and number of the minigames and make the game longer (more puzzles or whatever). Hopefully this also makes the game more interesting :) Also, making the game nonlinear can help (FF7 did it to some degree with a large number of side missions that, while optional, helped you out. Plus sometimes they introduced something interesting about the characters and other stuff).

<snip B&B minigame comments by CWS>

CyberKron...hm...Attack of the Killer Bug-ridden Cron Jobs? Naww....

3D doesn't look cartoonish enough. Plain and simple. I could see 3D minigames perhaps, but the for the whole thing to "feel" like Daria (IMO anyway) would be to keep with the boldy drawn, clearly deliniated animation that we've come to know and love. And no offense, but I find Daria's animation to be much more watchable than B&B.

Now THERE's something that might get me to buy a PSX...mmm....FFA and FF8...drool....

You don't want to make it *too* challenging though - then you run into the whole "I've just spent 3 hours trying to get past level 2 because of the damn clock. @#$(* it, this thing's going in the scrap heap" issue. Could simply integrate a clock to keep track of time spent in game without it having any affect on anything...but I dunno. I personally tend towards the less time limited games. Perhaps time limited for some quests, but don't make the entire game time limited :)

If even that much.

One thing I really want to see regardless, is that the ending of the game is finished right. FF7, Starcraft, Fallout 2, Outpost 2, and Diablo all gave satisfying endings. Personally I felt I had gotten my money's worth and that the ending lived up to the rest of the game in those titles. In some cases, (F2, FF7 in particular), I sat back and thought something to the effect of "Now THERE is a GAME". Contrast that to something like Privateer 2 where the ending was anticlimatic and made little sense. And for a combat space sim the end battle was pathetically easy even on a moderately priced hull (the more expensive the hull the more goodies you can throw on it and the higher its intrinsic abilities are). After *that* one I sat back and wondered how the hell they managed to expand that sucker to 3 disks considering how little time it took to beat and how easy it was (and how buggy it was. Damn that got annoying quick).

Hrm...I seem to have lost my train of thought.

Oh yes, my point (if I ever had one to begin with) was that one way or another I honestly hope they get this right :) Because if they can get the gameplay down then it won't be just the dedicated Daria fans who end up buying it. And it just might help convince MTV to keep funding up for more seasons of it.

Rambling away into the night...

Damon Orca on #Stars!