Rachael brown was her name?
To sort of get this thread back on track, here’s the latest from Stardock’s Origins’ blog:
This passage is potentially interesting:
The early concepts for the Vindicator and Earth Cruiser took inspiration from many real-world and science fiction sources. There are nods to Star Trek, Space 1999, and of course, previous Star Control games.
So references, “of course”, to “previous Star Control games”. Also, the player ship in the new game is also called Vindicator, apparently?
They’ve designed different types of ships for each of the races:
These have both a gameplay purpose, as well as a way of deepening the Star Control lore.
One wonders what “Star Control lore” refers to in this context.
Translation: “Any similarity between our ships and the ships from the previous games is purely coincidental; we just happened to decide to derive our ships from the same source material that the ships with the same name in the prior games used.”
Well, with the removal of P&F’s licensed material, there is no pre-existing Star Control lore except for some parts of SC3 that they don’t appear to be using. So adding almost anything would be “deepening”.
As an aside, they just announced Adam Baldwin as a voice on Star Control. He was “Jayne” in Firefly.
I met Adam Baldwin a number of years ago, when my son was about 9 or 10, and he graciously spent a few minutes talking to my kid about an acting career. He was friendly, personable, and very encouraging to a young actor wannabe. He spent more time than he needed to and seemed genuinely enthusiastic do so. I was really impressed.
But on social media, I was surprised to discover he was one of the jerkiest conservative a-holes I’ve ever had the displeasure to read. His online assholishness was really incongruous with the guy I met in person. He seems to have toned it down to just slavish support of the alt-right no matter what the facts from a quick skim of his recent tweets, at least.
Given Brad’s politics, I found this casting an interesting choice. Might be unrelated – as sad as his political views are, he is a really good actor.
Not to mention Baldwin’s role in Gamergate (including coining the phrase). Nobody in the industry would be unaware of the statement they’re making by hiring him.
I guess Stardock needed to reassure us all that they’re definitely still the baddies.
Oh, wow. I studiously avoided getting entangled in the details of the insanity of Gamergate and didn’t know that. But I guess I shouldn’t be shocked. I met Vox Day when he was simply Theo Beale back in the late 90s, when he came by the CGW offices to pimp Rebel Moon Rising. He took us out to lunch and seemed to be a smart, really pleasant guy. And look what at what he turned into. Ugh.
Yuck. Baldwin has been a really shitty person for years now. I suppose he may have been all along, but the reports of his friendliness during fan meetings was great cover.
There was no surprise from me when that press release went out today. Birds of a feather…
This might be the first video game on the site to get 3 discussion threads before it is out.
I’d start 5 more threads on Elder Scrolls 6, but someone would probably go all thread-cop on me.
Baldwin is a major jackhole, but that’s uncalled for.
My moral event horizon has been crossed.
This thread should be limited to the lawsuit. We already all know that you guys think that anyone who mocks the idiocy of modern identity politics is defined as a shitty person for years now.
My eyes cannot roll hard enough.
Got the email and wanted to posted about Baldwin here, but see I’ve been beaten to the punch. I agree with the assessments above: hiring him at this point seems to send a very clear signal about the kind of politics that Stardock supports, and it certainly leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
In any case, to get back to the thread on hand, anyone read the latest blog entry on the Stardock website? It’s a follow up to the earlier post about the aliens of Star Control: Origins.
It naturally alludes to the issues covered by the lawsuit. Here’s a choice example taken from that article:
Originally, we were going to keep the Star Control aliens from the classic trilogy separate from the new Star Control games. Unfortunately, a great deal of confusion arose as to whether Star Control: Origins is associated with the classic Star Control games (the answer is, yes).
So the argument is that Origins, “yes”, it’s “associated with the classic” games. But Brad immediately follows this up with the following:
So while Star Control: Origins is a reboot, ala the recent Battlestar Galactica series, it is related to classic Star Control games.
Then follows a discussion of the Melnorme and how Stardock went about creating something different for this race. “Like with the Arilou,” Brad writes, “the artist was only given a description of the Melnorme which started out as Orange, One-Eyed, Size of Fist, Spy race, Low gravity world.” It’s as confusing as the situation with the Arilou: same name, similar appearance, but yet different?
This is the kicker:
Fan service is a tricky thing. On the one hand, we knew that some fans would want the Melnorme expressed how they were in Star Control II. But on the other hand, we have to take into account that most players will have never heard of or played the original series and what worked then may not work now.
So again the question is: if people that are going to play Origins are supposedly unfamiliar with these classic races, why bother putting them in your game? Especially after Brad said, repeatedly and publicly, that he wouldn’t touch P&F’s original plot and alien races? Is this done purely because of the supposed “confusion” about whether or not Origins is connected to the classic games? But if people are unlikely, in Brad’s estimation, to remember the original games, what confusion is there?
And I mean, what confusion is there outside of the confusion that Stardock/Brad is apparently trying to sow?
And Halo 3? Mass Effect 2? Half-Life 2? Those were all before Gamergate, but Baldwin being an assjangle is nothing new.
Well, that’s the rub, right? Those were before GG and everyone knew he was an assjangle.
I’m just saying, if Stardock is going to be crucified for hiring the guy because it must be a reflection of the company’s (or Brad’s) politics, are Valve, Microsoft, and BioWare going to be held to the same standard?
Now all I can hear is the the tune to “Mr. Bojangles” as “Mr. Assjangles”. THANKS MAN.