[MUD-Dev] Character evolution

[Jeff Kesselman]

At 01:46 PM 8/31/97 PST8PDT, Travis Casey wrote:
>Exactly.  As someone (I forget who) once pointed out, the few Western
>movies which tried to actually portray the American West as it really
>was in the 1800's were commercial failures.  The ones which did well
>were those that used characters with modern attitudes in an ostensibly
>"Western" setting.

Back in college in one of m film classes I read a slightly different take
on thsi thast I found very convincing:

To wit: The Western is Myth Making.  The westerens that as you say are
popualr, are basically  secular morality plays with greek-myth proportion
heroes and villians.

Its worth noting by the way the two most standard errors in a western
gunfight scene.  The six guns of the old west had very large, (relatively)
slow bullets and no accuracy to speak of.  They rarely hit what they were
aimed at but if you were hit by one it knocked you on your ass and you
likely WERENT getting back up.  There is t least one recorded case of a
duel where the two gunfighters unloaded two six guns a reice without EVER
hitting each other.,

The one thing that IS true about ten scene as represented is al ltyhe
bystsnaders diving cover.  Thatw as because with thsoe damn guns they were
as likely top get hit as anythign else.

I researcehd this when I ran a  Boot Hill campaign many years ago.

On the subejct of Myth making, I've also read a VERY covnincing article
that analyzes the Godzilla series as modern may myth making and a taming oh
the atom bomb as created by the only society ever to directly experience
the effects of one.  The interesting thing about it IMO is the way Godzilla
changes to fit changes in Japanese society over the period of production of
the movies.  The first Godzilla film is Godzilla, radicoative mutant
monster destroys every5thing (stand in for the bomb itself) until laid low
in a comfortingmanner by modern japanese science.   By the LAST movie
Godzilla is the GOOD guy defending Japan from an evil monster spawned from
pollution (this parallels the rise of Atomic power plants in japan.)

Most critical film analysis is total BS, but these ewer both pretty good
arguments.

JK
Jeff Kesselman
Snr. Game Integration Engineer
TEN -- The Total Entertainment Network -- www.ten.net

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