Does the new Steam refund system hurt indie developers? [TB video]

[x4000]

Cheers.

And yeah, agreed on all that.  The point with them being mainstream is that people get exposed to them even if they aren't listening to them on the radio, which I think is great.  I'm definitely a fan of James Newton Howard; The Hunger Games had some excellent stuff in it.  The one vocal track for Are You Coming To The Hanging Tree (which I think was from movie two) was also really powerful.

There are a lot of bad movies that I get excited about just because they spawn good music.  I don't watch the movie, but I enjoy the music that results.   Tron: Legacy was one of those in my opinion.  I was also very happy to have the music from the Star Wars prequels, even if everything else about them was a train wreck.  Indy 4 was surprisingly meh, though, in the music department.

[Wingflier]

What did you think about the new Star Wars movie?

I was actually surprised at just how similar the plot line paralleled A New Hope.

I was even more surprised that I found myself enjoying it even though this was the case. Maybe that's just proof of how desperate people had become to have that genuine Star Wars experience the prequels had deprived us of.

Spoiler for Hiden:

I was also very surprised they killed off Harrison Ford. But after reading about it, it made sense. I think he may have potentially stolen the limelight as a character and prevented the trilogy from becoming the legacy of its own making.

By the way, what did you also think of Kylo Ren? That seemed to be one area which everyone was conflicted about. Personally I really liked him.

[x4000]

Oh, I loved the new movie.  I felt like it did what it needed to do in order to re-establish the franchise on good footing.  If episode VIII is also harking back TOO much to the old stuff, then I'm going to be frustrated.  But I felt like this one did a really good job at what it was supposed to do.

As to the other things:

Spoiler for Hiden:

I just KNEW they were going to kill off Han.  When they first announced he was in the movie, my first thought was that was what they'd do.  I knew he'd asked for that during Empire Strikes Back, and narratively it makes sense.  He's getting quite old, and they needed to introduce new blood, etc.  When they spent so much time with him in this movie, I was like "yep, they're getting in as much time as possible because they gonna kill this dude."  I thought it was well done how they did it, too.

What I also thought was going to happen, though, was that the Starkiller base was going to actually destroy the planet they were trying to save, and the X-Wing squadron was going to fail.  THAT would have been dark, and really cool.  It also would have been too rapid of an end for Leia given she didn't have much screen time here, but she could have been a force ghost or something coming up.  I felt like something along those lines would have been a clear signal of "okay, we're going a different way with this than you thought, even though this is familiar."  I feel like next movie they're going to do that.

I really liked Kylo Ren.  He's a school shooter.  He's un-cool, he has all the hallmarks, etc.  During the woods I really wished he'd put his mask back on, because he's super threatening when he's hiding behind the mask.  But so long as he mostly keeps it on in the new movies, that will be great.  The cognitive dissonance that this un-cool school shooter kid creates with being this crazy Darth Vader wannabe is great.  You could even tell how immature he was when he still had on the mask, because he sat there destroying property of his own in a rage.  He didn't strangle people like grandpa, but somehow that made him seem less mature.  My wife remarked on that bit in particular, too.

Anyhow, we both really enjoyed it.

[Aklyon]

Spoiler for Extra on the other things:

Also, the stormtroopers on patrol at one point quietly dodge going near kylo's property destruction rage. They're more scared of angry kylo than looking like they're properly on patrol.

[x4000]

That was both hilarious and a super nice touch.

[Mánagarmr]

What did you think about the new Star Wars movie?

I was actually surprised at just how similar the plot line paralleled A New Hope.

I was even more surprised that I found myself enjoying it even though this was the case. Maybe that's just proof of how desperate people had become to have that genuine Star Wars experience the prequels had deprived us of.

Spoiler for Hiden:

I was also very surprised they killed off Harrison Ford. But after reading about it, it made sense. I think he may have potentially stolen the limelight as a character and prevented the trilogy from becoming the legacy of its own making.

By the way, what did you also think of Kylo Ren? That seemed to be one area which everyone was conflicted about. Personally I really liked him.

Similar? It's almost line for line the same exact plot. As for Kylo, I think he's a credible character but pretty lame as a villian. I mean, an insecure emo kid trying to fill his idols' boots? Eeeeeh no. Contrary to most people though I did like his saber. It makes perfect sense from an in-universe standpoint and fits the character perfectly. Anyone insecure and compensating for his lack of self confidence WOULD make a saber that is so ludicrously overpowered that it's struggling to keep a coherent blade (hence the loud noise, serrated/irregular blade and plasma vents/quillons).

[Aklyon]

I don't mind his saber design (I'm surprised they didn't add a plasma hilt to any of them earlier), it just seems like its going to blow up whenever he activates it. And yet it didn't explode in this movie. It would've been amusing if it had blown up like it constantly sounds like it will, dagnabit!

[Draco18s]

I agree with Mánagarmr about Kylo.

[crazyroosterman]

personally I enjoyed the new star wars film nothing to say on

Spoiler for Hiden:

mr han dying

since well me being as young as I am (I'm just turned 20) I never got attached to the character like so many other people did and I never thought he was that interesting a character in truth I would have found him completely forgettable if the actor didn't do as cracking a job as he did(also I kind of super spoiled my self on that film)
but really that goes for my self and the series it self on a whole half because as I mentioned before I'm stupidly young and didn't have the same surprised of watching the films in their correct order and with all the hype around them nothing really surprised me it makes me wish I could watch all these films completely blind to them to see them from your perspectives and also as a person who likes to read a lot science fiction I find the black and white sort of thing going on in the films generally rather dull
there's a ton more I could say really but id rather not get to rambly so ill stop here unless you want me to go on.

[crazyroosterman]

What did you think about the new Star Wars movie?

I was actually surprised at just how similar the plot line paralleled A New Hope.

I was even more surprised that I found myself enjoying it even though this was the case. Maybe that's just proof of how desperate people had become to have that genuine Star Wars experience the prequels had deprived us of.

Spoiler for Hiden:

I was also very surprised they killed off Harrison Ford. But after reading about it, it made sense. I think he may have potentially stolen the limelight as a character and prevented the trilogy from becoming the legacy of its own making.

By the way, what did you also think of Kylo Ren? That seemed to be one area which everyone was conflicted about. Personally I really liked him.

Similar? It's almost line for line the same exact plot. As for Kylo, I think he's a credible character but pretty lame as a villian. I mean, an insecure emo kid trying to fill his idols' boots? Eeeeeh no. Contrary to most people though I did like his saber. It makes perfect sense from an in-universe standpoint and fits the character perfectly. Anyone insecure and compensating for his lack of self confidence WOULD make a saber that is so ludicrously overpowered that it's struggling to keep a coherent blade (hence the loud noise, serrated/irregular blade and plasma vents/quillons).

I did how ever dig that character and just how pathetic he was much more interesting than anybody else in that film really I found the other new characters really quite forgettable really.


also an interesting thing came to me a while ago has anybody else here realised that c 3p0 and r2 d2 are the longest surviving characters in the series? in canonical time line order they've been there since the very beginning.

[x4000]

There were a lot of expectations on that film from a lot of people with a lot of different histories with the franchise.  There was no way it was going to please everybody.  I'm not nominating it for movie of the year, but I think it did a really good job and was enjoyable.  VIII has to be much more original, though.

[Mánagarmr]

There were a lot of expectations on that film from a lot of people with a lot of different histories with the franchise.  There was no way it was going to please everybody.  I'm not nominating it for movie of the year, but I think it did a really good job and was enjoyable.  VIII has to be much more original, though.

I definitely think they did a stellar job. It looked the part and it FELT the part. It was Star Wars, alright. No matter the nitpicks, it was still a really good attempt. Like you, I hope VIII is a more original story.

[Mánagarmr]

also an interesting thing came to me a while ago has anybody else here realised that c 3p0 and r2 d2 are the longest surviving characters in the series? in canonical time line order they've been there since the very beginning.

C3PO has been through at least two mindwipes I think though, so even though his personality seems similar, he's actually "died" twice. R2D2 though is one old as heck droid, and it doesn't quite make sense that he's still being used. Considering how fast technology should be advancing, he would be obsolete five times over.

[Wingflier]

Considering how fast technology should be advancing, he would be obsolete five times over.

Ah, but you're comparing the SW Universe to our universe. It's a little different.

For example, in the Knights of the Old Republic game that literally takes place 4,000 years before the events of the first movie, pretty much everything is still the same. Lightsabers are around, all the technology and starships seem about the same. So if we're to take that at face value, that's 4k years with little to no technological advances at all. That game was hailed as a masterpiece.

Also, remember that the people in the Star Wars universe are not human. At least, they didn't come from our species, and thus may have significantly different characteristics.

[crazyroosterman]

There were a lot of expectations on that film from a lot of people with a lot of different histories with the franchise.  There was no way it was going to please everybody.  I'm not nominating it for movie of the year, but I think it did a really good job and was enjoyable.  VIII has to be much more original, though.

true true I've never really taken the series seriously personally although I find the out side lore very interesting and is more of the grey I like I'm glad I wasn't hyped for the film all things considered if I had been I probably would have hated it
like bio shock infinite I was absurdly hyped for that game but hateeeed it when I got my hands on it but that's a different discussion altogether 
agreed though if the next film panders  to the prequel haters and makes the next film a copy of tesb then I won't watch it I've got no shortage of science fiction to read.