Re: review: Anti-religious Mems in Races of the Dr

[Fellfrosch]

I knew you were going to bring up the google money--you just won't let that go. I told you you're not seeing a penny of it until you clean up your act, and I'm sticking by that. And by "clean up your act," I mean "no more articles that make Jack Chick look sane and reasonable."

[42]

No, I think you want to feel validated.

And if people validate Fell instead of you, you'll be offended.

You seem very defensive of your opinion at the moment, as is Fell.

Hence, people have you to choose one or the other which could have some seriously bad ripple effects.

[Mister M]

So this thread has got me curious for independent validation. Since I don't own Races of the Dragon, I had to content myself with looking for either Nazi or Christian imagery in the online art gallery at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ag/20060105a&page=1.

I looked at every image, and I can't find any. E, could you point out which ones have the imagery you're referring to so I can check for myself? Thanks.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

some of us don't see much difference there, 42, you're picking at nits. I'm all over being validated. We all know my ego's that big. But if I'm completely unvalidated, then I guess it's not what people want. I don't see how people posting their opinion is a *bad* thing.

anyway, the money, that was never a "condition" on it before. I work harder here than you. I deserve a cut for the traffic my work generates.

Even if we take your derogatory terms as factual instead of just inflamatory, does that matter? The crazy man attracts traffic. That's the point of a web site isn't it?

But here I am expressing a view that you disagree with. You use money over my head to shut me up. Score one for open-minded gamers. (that was sarcasm)

[Entsuropi]

The enworld reviews weren't kidding about the art being bad.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

M, the gallery has slightly different versions of the pictures than actually show up in the book. this one for example, has a lot of changes to the line art. If you look closely, you can even see where they didn't do such a good job cleaning it up. In addition, most of the spellscale faces are revealing when juxtaposed with the text accompanying them.

[Skar]

Deleting posts willy nilly is just silly.    Even for the head editor of the site to do so is a little over the line.  Especially when, from the evidence in Fell's posts, it's because he has something personal against E.  I could understand it if Spriggan was doing it but I don't expect that kind of pig-ignorant behavior from Fell.

I only got a chance to read a couple of paragraphs of that article before killed it and it wasn't nearly as much of a "rant" as he makes it out to be.

[stacer]

I remain neutral in this. Conflicts of interest and all.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

selling your soul more like it!

[Mister M]

M, the gallery has slightly different versions of the pictures than actually show up in the book.

Would it violate copyright to scan one in and compare it for reference? I'm guessing not since (a) you're not selling it, (b) you're still giving credit, and (c) it's for sort-of academic purposes. (Okay, so "academic" probably doesn't fit, but I don't know what does.)

[Skar]

Yeah.  Let's see some of these pictures.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I will do that when I can get to one. I'll try to stop by my in-laws tonight.

[Fellfrosch]

I wish it was a joke. I've been dealing with this crap for weeks in email and IM, and now I thought that maybe if I brought it to a public forum it would calm him down; obviously it didn't.

Let's look at some of the text in the review:

The next thing to consider is the memes present in the kobold section. Nobody in their right mind could read this without seeing the obvious parallels to the Saul/Paul dichotomy, which is practically point for point up until it all goes sour and starts present Paul as a crazed deceiver and tyrant. In the way they structure Kobold society they argue that Saul was the better half, and that denying the presence of Christ in our lives is the rational choice.

I admit that I haven't read the book, but come on. Don't you think that was a little over the top?

[House of Mustard]

Wait.  Why isn't SE getting money?  I got a cut, and I write, like, what?  Three times a year?

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I don't see what's so crazy about that. They make the kobolds this master race serving "The serpent" (dragons, but often called "serpents"). the entire Day in the life section hints at that, then psychology, kobold life, and culture sections carry it out. It's practically a treatise. Don't even get me started about the Kurtulmak (an anagram for "Kalmuk Rut" -- Kalmuk is an archaic form of "Kalmyk," a region of mongolia under Russian control populated by buddhists. The worship of Kurtulmak at times is described as satanic rites and at other times buddhist idolatry. It conflates satanism and buddhism, attempting to make both look like anti-intellectual fools.