Castle Paradox

[Chaos Nyte]

Well, after my first play through, when I discovered there wasn't any real point in leveling up since there were no bosses, I ran away from most of the battles. However...

1. I like the sp regain system for skills. Gaining two points per attack is an interesting way to keep the game's battles balanced.

2. I like how the fish partner could steal potions.

3. I dislike how I can only buy one piece of armor. One of the joys of RPGs is gaining new equipment, not levelbusting for 10 extra hit points. >_< Seriously, this goes out to everyone. If you find yourself playing a game where you have way too much money after buying everything you need, the game is horribly balanced.

4. Random encounters were on the high side, and became quite boring when I was attempting to advance the plot. I do like how you can't run away from the prison guards, but again, I found that with a little leveling random battles became useless time wasters. Only after levelbusting did I even find out my character had a new skill at level 5. The demo certainly doesn't require you to level that high.

Frankly, I really wish you had completed the demo to perfection. You know, included all the things you say the overworld map is missing, gave the 2nd character more, well, character, and generally polished the game up. The selection of the main character's body and class is good, but it shouldn't have to hold up the rest of the demo.

[The Wobbler]

[Rinku]

haha, that comic is great -- and mainly because it takes human day to be its exact opposite (probably thanks to no_shot) -- so i fully support the comic.

(although i'm surprised you don't know enough about the heroists to know that we are about as pro-capitalist as you can get (ayn rand is one of our heroes) -- but just to clear it up, human day is not about 'the human spirit', is not non-commericial, etc. etc., about almost the opposite of what that comic depicts it as)

actually this comic inspired me to set up an official human day page -- we previously had none, just the contest page. but if we had an actual page explaining what human day is, second-hand sources wouldn't have to be relied on.

although i actually doubt this will help, because the i remember reading a thread on this mb about the heroic manifesto in which almost the same exact thing happened: it was attacked for being almost the opposite of what it was. it really baffles me, actually; i mean, some of the people in that thread took it as the *direct opposite* of what it was saying. it's as if douglas adams was attacked for being too serious, or if nazis were attacked for being too freedom-loving.

but until the official human day page is up, this is what human day is:

the full name is human achievement day, but human day is used for short. it's for the celebration of human achievement -- i.e. all the values that humanity has created, is creating, and will create. this includes everything from computers to candy to spaceships to novels to cities to bread to vitamins -- basically anything that's value. in particular the emphasis is on great values -- i.e. lord of the rings is more to be celebrated than its typical fantasy clones, since lord of the rings was a greater achievement.

it's celebrated by creating or purchasing some value, as an expression of value-creating power, and then offering it to someone that one likes. this may also include oneself (i.e. you may give yourself a human day gift), but usually pertains to friends. but the primacy is on production rather than use -- i.e. drinking and resting would be out of place, working frenziedly on one's loved activity (whether hobby or side-skill or career) would be in place.

there are contests and traditions, but since it's a new holiday (3 years old this year) it makes little sense to yet call these 'traditions'. but the main tradition is of value-creation contests: game contests, novel contests, short story contests, martial art contests, contests in every field of human endeavor. eventually the intention is to give awards for the greatest achivements in a particular field of endeavor for that year. sort of like the nobel prizes, pulizer prizes, etc. so it's sort of actually more like the olympic games than like christmas.

it's not opposed to christmas, but grew out of a particular aspect of christmas: many object that christmas has become 'too commercialized', so human day would provide a commercial alternative. if a christian doesn't like what corporations are doing to their holiday, they can instead 'split it in two', so to speak. there can be christmas, on which the birth of christ is celebrated, and then there can be human day, where gifts are given (gift-giving wasn't a part of the original tradition of christmas anyway). one could say 'this present isn't for christmas, it's for human day'. those who have no problem with christmas's commercialization can of course just ignore human day, but those who are distressed by the loss of the original christmas traditions but still like gift-giving can do both at once, so to speak.

it also offers people who are not christians a way to 'get in on' the gift-giving. a lot of people in america are not christian, but they grow up around christmas tradition, and want to have the opportunity to give gifts also. those who don't mind giving gifts for a holiday of a religion they don't believe in can also ignore human day, but those who feel uncomfortable giving gifts in the name of someone they don't think was much better than anyone else can instead give gifts as part of human day if they think that's less hypocritical.

but the main focus is on human achievement, on value-creation, the actual giving of the gifts is second to the producing of them. to 'it's better to give than to recieve' we instead say 'without first producing, you can neither give nor recieve'. so it's a holiday for those that -- no holiday that i know of before human day celebrated production, which seemed extremely sad to those of us who love production, so it was meant to fill that gap.
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Tower Defense Game

[no_shot]

Human Day has something to do with Christmas. Instead of a fake dude flying around giving people presents, we work to produce our own presents. Such is the goal of human achievement.

>
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Play Horrible Fantasy NOW!

[Rinku]

come on no_shot, when did you become a heroist? you're ruining our image here -- not that it's not bad already, but still.

it has something to do with christmas in one sense, and in another sense it doesn't. it does fall on the same day, and it does involve giving gifts. also, 'santa claus' is a part of both holidays: but performs different roles in each. (in human day, santa is the villain, but that's explained in tilde and the mask of :p). but christ is only part of christmas, and in fact in the tilde novel and the tilde game no mention at all is made of christ or christianity: the only thing that is christmasy about it is santa claus, christmas trees, presents, snowmen, and other 'non-religious' or secular aspects of christmas.
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Tower Defense Game

[HarlockHero]

dammit all, rinku, you're such a fanatically christian communist... why can't you be more reality-worshipping capitalist, huh?!

((that's a good comic, surlaw, (you even referenced the only scene that i liked from the big lebowski) but you probably shouldn't rely on non-heroist sources to tell you what the heroists are about))
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[The Wobbler]

[J'sang'spar]

[HarlockHero]

true that if you ask a hundred people what christmas means to them, you'll get a hundred different answers, but the only ones who can speak with authority on what christmas means would be bishop julius I (350 AD) and his advisors, priests, etc. likewise, though there may be many who "support this holiday" of human day (which is great, i wasn't aware of anyone but me and the other heroists and a few non-heroist allies like pk-fortis) with differing (and even contradictory) ideals. you're totally free, of course, to make comics mocking these differing notions or the holiday itself. i just thought i would point out for your interest (and the sake of accuracy) that the main "authorities" (i.e - the originators of human day and its ideals) are rinku and i (and i guess the forthcoming human day website, heh).

to be fair, i watched the big lebowski when i was in 7th grade or so, during the two most miserable-minded years of my life, so i may be recalling it with less fondness than it deserves. i'll watch it again one day.
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[Machu]

Aw, Human Day sounds cool!

I need to visit your guys' website and get my hero liscence.
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[Rinku]

there actually are a couple of people who use the term human day instead of xmas who don't actually know any heroist well. newedition (on my lj friends list) is one example. but i'd be surprised if more than 100 people are familiar with the term.
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Tower Defense Game

[fyrewulff]

Human Day is just about anti-Jesus as much as Christmas is about Jesus. I was raised Jewish and we always celebrated Christmas.

[Me]

That is most definitely correct. Christmas already lost the Christian aspect for most people (me being one of them), so you can't be mad at people for trying to build on that.
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[Rinku]

not anti-jesus, a-jesus (a- means 'ignoring' or 'out of the bounds of', as in moral, immoral, amoral). i'd call it 'jesus-free' but that sounds like a soft drink.
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Tower Defense Game

[The Wobbler]