Episode 147 - Gamer: LIVE!

[FisterRoboto 7499]

i wish ... it was on earwolfs instagram feed

Also...

 

JUNE WAS BACK!!!

 

[EverettRobert 7]

i wish ... it was on earwolfs instagram feed

 

I saw it on their Instagram too. No joke, I did the same costume last year at a small comic con I was presenting at. no one got it. I was thrilled.

[ElieB 238]

i really enjoyed this movie but i can see why so many people hate it. i think if i really thought about it i'd end up hating ... but as i watched it i had a whole lot of fun .... and when dexter started dancing ... the smile on my face was like that on a jack-o-lantern.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulcPQya3z7o

 

 

OK I haven't watched this movie, and maybe this was brought up in the podcast, but I have a big question. I mean I have a bunch of little questions like wtf is the plot of this movie, is someone controlling michael C hall, is that person the villain or just another idiot playing this society game? etc. But this scene has me really confused. So people get to control convicts as avatar people in 'society', check, got that part. Sooo I figured this was a limit of one person to one avatar control, right? Cause how you gonna control multiple bodies at the same time.

 

SO, what the hell is this choreographed dance scene?? I thought they were probably all convicts and thus other players? Shouldn't they be competing? As opposed to working out dance routines? Like, they aren't robots running the same program are they? So am I supposed to understand that a dozen or so players got their avatars together and worked out a flash mob dance routine to some 70yo tune?

 

Oh so I guess there are 'bots'. That seems really fucking stupid. Bots never survive, game AIs are always shit. This is like giving those convicts a death sentence. (I'm still reading through and catching up on the thread)

Edited October 31, 2016 by ElieB

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

 

OK I haven't watched this movie, and maybe this was brought up in the podcast, but I have a big question. I mean I have a bunch of little questions like wtf is the plot of this movie, is someone controlling michael C hall, is that person the villain or just another idiot playing this society game?

 

I would have welcomed this twist. Some kind of multi-layered Inception revealing the real Big Bad. But sadly, no, it's megalomaniacal Dexter working alone, who has control tech in everyone around him, and his big final plan is that he'll send microbots out in dust to infect the whole world, so he can control everyone by his thoughts. Which for some reason ignores the fact that Dexter has to be thinking about a move for it to happen (see: self stabby) so controlling more than one or two people at a time seems really inconvenient. Maybe his grand plan revolves entirely around Beijing Olympics-level mass choreography, assuming he can get everyone to do whatever he wants, so long as they all do exactly the same thing at exactly the same time.

[ElieB 238]

Hahaha thank you Kit, reading this and your many other posts on this episode has cleared up a lot of my questions.

 

Now I'm thinking it's insane that they populate an entire game on a monthly(?) basis with only DEATHROW convicts?? This is some hell of mass culling. I guess that's the whole idea so my thinking that they were giving these convicts a death sentence by making them bots was both wrong and right. Really they're giving everyone involved a death sentence and the convicts choosing to be bots are just picking the shortest way out? Why go through up to 30 rounds of psychological torture when you can get it over with in one. But then why are there a ton of other randoms inside society including sedwig. How are rounds ended? Is it a timed thing or a last man standing kind of thing? In which case how do Sedwig or any others get out alive.

 

Also, using the stats Fister Roboto gave us on the last page, can we estimate the US has about 225 deathrow inmates per year, past 40 or so years? Assuming this show needs to happen fairly regularly to maintain some kind of ratings or status, let's say monthly? 12 times a year, that means there are at best about 20 players available per tournament/culling. Not even enough to last 30 rounds let alone populate the game and whatever sized area Society is. The number of deathrow inmates would have to grow by ten fold, at the low end of the scale, to even come close to populating the game. God I hate future distopya movies. They just don't make any fucking sense. Sorta like me right now trying to make sense of this.

 

I really ought to just watch the movie I guess. Woulda taken less time than me just trying to puzzle out the basic premise of the movie.

[RyanSz 3140]

Also, using the stats Fister Roboto gave us on the last page, can we estimate the US has about 225 deathrow inmates per year, past 40 or so years? Assuming this show needs to happen fairly regularly to maintain some kind of ratings or status, let's say monthly? 12 times a year, that means there are at best about 20 players available per tournament/culling. Not even enough to last 30 rounds let alone populate the game and whatever sized area Society is. The number of deathrow inmates would have to grow by ten fold, at the low end of the scale, to even come close to populating the game. God I hate future distopya movies. They just don't make any fucking sense. Sorta like me right now trying to make sense of this.

 

I really ought to just watch the movie I guess. Woulda taken less time than me just trying to puzzle out the basic premise of the movie.

Given that there is just shy of 3,000 death row inmates in the US right now, and that maybe 25% of them are probably not in physical parameters to play in the game due to either age and physical or mental ability, I can see that being an issue. Yet the movie had like a Demolition Man-esque look at the near future where shit goes HORRIBLY wrong and the prisons are overflowing with inmates in that rung, it would be more feasible to accomplish the goal of running a show where people fight to the death, this isn't taking into fact that Dexter might be getting inmates from around the world as well with back end deals with foreign governments.

 

Also side note, for fans of the show, Funko has announced a new line of POP figures based on Stranger Things!

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/10/31/stranger-things-funko-pop-photos

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

do you think the prison in gamer was the same place as the weird landscape in Solarbabies and all those games the babies played was just training for some sort of futuristic video game? or maybe it was a childs game and bodhai was actually the character the child played as?

 

[ElieB 238]

Yes! I found this lovely chart showing the total number of death row inmates by year.

 

 

Now, I'm pretty sure this includes a ton of carry-over. This isn't total intake year over year, it's the running total of the death row population. Cause some of these convictions drag on for years and others get overturned and appealed, etc. So even though the current 3000 or so death row inmates would be enough for one season/year of 'Society', if not a bit low, the stock of inmates would run dry by the second season.

 

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/views-executions

The more interesting bit from this website and database is that there have only been about 1430 executions in the United States since 1977. Which is an average of about 35 pear year... So it's more like the number of death penalty convicts would have to increase by like 10,000 fold to make Society viable? Of course like Ryan Sz points out, they could be out-sourcing their convict intake to foreign countries as well, but did that come across in the movie at all? (Really, im asking. cause i didn't watch this piece of shit.)

 

Also, of the roughly 2,900 inmates currently on deathrow, 741 of them are in or from California. ONE QUARTER of death row inmates, sick twisted violent blood-thirsty killers, are in the golden state. Guys, what the fuck is happening down there? Be careful earwolf people. <3

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

all these worries about death row inmate numbers ... lets not forget this is the neveldine/taylor universe ... it's full of ghost riders and crankers ... and with the possible tie ins with the deathrace/fast&furious/solarbabies worlds .. there's gona be plenty of people on death row to go around ... that is of course if cops like the rock stop just letting people go and then joining their "families" before falling out with the daddy of the family and maybe causing the family to split up ...

 

 

but seriously ... lets not forget 2 things ...

 

firstly, butlers character wasn't on death row (at least i dont think he was) until dexter put the stuff in his brain and then forced him to kill his buddy. he was in the military so im guessing alot of these people on death row got there in a similar fashion. dexter implanted stuff in the brains of soldiers for use in crooked government sanctioned experiments to test the technology and then forced them to kill someone to see if he could control a person to carry out the ultimate act against their will and, as a handy bonus, bump up the numbers for his game.

 

secondly, dexter said something about setting the technology off in the air .. to infect everyone ... so he only needed a limited number of prisoners anyway .. just enough so he could perfect the technology before releasing it and control everyone with his own brain .. but this raises further questions ... how is one man going to control everyone else with his one brain? and what happens if that one man dies? is life everywhere just stopped? put on pause???

 

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

but this raises further questions ... how is one man going to control everyone else with his one brain? and what happens if that one man dies? is life everywhere just stopped? put on pause???

 

 

Or, just as importantly, what happens if a Slayers gamer needs to take a leak mid battle or the UPS man comes to the door or (more likely for our hero) his mum tells him he has to clean his room? He can't hit pause to take care of something and pick back up. What if the internet goes down? That avatar is dead meat.

 

I think you're right about the universe: this is a distant future where news anchors swear and people go out for Iranian food. I assume the crime rates are through the roof and we have a Judge Dredd style system of judge/jury/executioner for minor crimes. Speaking of: I know the Sly Stallone Dredd was terrible (spaghetti robot and all) but you have to give it up for the Karl Urban versus Lena Headey version. God DAMN that was awesome.

 

[RyanSz 3140]

Yes! I found this lovely chart showing the total number of death row inmates by year.

 

 

Now, I'm pretty sure this includes a ton of carry-over. This isn't total intake year over year, it's the running total of the death row population. Cause some of these convictions drag on for years and others get overturned and appealed, etc. So even though the current 3000 or so death row inmates would be enough for one season/year of 'Society', if not a bit low, the stock of inmates would run dry by the second season.

 

http://www.deathpena...iews-executions

The more interesting bit from this website and database is that there have only been about 1430 executions in the United States since 1977. Which is an average of about 35 pear year... So it's more like the number of death penalty convicts would have to increase by like 10,000 fold to make Society viable? Of course like Ryan Sz points out, they could be out-sourcing their convict intake to foreign countries as well, but did that come across in the movie at all? (Really, im asking. cause i didn't watch this piece of shit.)

 

Also, of the roughly 2,900 inmates currently on deathrow, 741 of them are in or from California. ONE QUARTER of death row inmates, sick twisted violent blood-thirsty killers, are in the golden state. Guys, what the fuck is happening down there? Be careful earwolf people. <3

Okay time to flash my personal experience/knowledge with the subject. As a librarian in a prison in California, I can tell you that the fluctuation for getting off death row or having your sentence reduced/pardoned is a rare instance as many of the inmates are doing the filings themselves and write as if you or I would write a text message. There are things like the Innocence Project that offers pro bono assistance for inmates, unfortunately the inmate basically has to do ALL the legwork on research for their case before the Project decides if the case is winnable, and thus worth their time. The other issue are countless frivolous lawsuits being filed on what seems like a daily basis which in turn slows the system down in getting legitimate filings in front of a judge.

 

As for California having the most death row inmates there are quite a few reasons for such a thing to happen, also realize that all of those inmates are stored in a single prison in the state, San Quentin. Some inmates may not have been tried in California but moved to that prison for health reasons, like being susceptible to Valley Fever or various other illnesses that can make living in certain prisons a civil right issue. Other issues can be inmate safety if their current location is too volatile to live in, such as if the inmate is particularly famous or there is a personal connection to the area where there is a conflict of interest, like if the convict had killed a CO in a facility or family member of someone working in the prison. When I started my job I had to fill out a form stating if I knew an inmate in the facility, to the best of my knowledge, and if I did that inmate would have been transferred to another facility. With celebrity inmates, there is a chance of other inmates trying to kill that person in order to either get revenge for a wrong in the criminal hierarchy, like if the target was a molester or child killer, or if killing said celeb convict would increase one's street cred inside the facility, sort of like what happened when Jeffrey Dahmer was killed in prison.

 

With guys like Charles Manson and Scott Peterson, they fall under both categories as celebrities and as such are basically never let out of their cells, though they remain in California for a variety of reasons. Another issue where inmates would be sent to another facility's death row would be overcrowding, which is very common and there are transports almost a few times each week at my prison. Hopefully this sheds some light on that situation.

[ElieB 238]

You are... the most interesting man in the board.

Damn dude, I had no idea you had so much prison rep. Now i have to go back and see what you had to say about the Faceoff episode and any other prison related episodes.

 

Edit: Also, the singular take away from that post should be the words "civil rights issue". And yeah I get that it's a Neveldine/Taylor joint, but come on. I feel like we're all past the whole running man game cliche of treating prisoners and convicts like human trash to be used in a real life GTA game.

[RyanSz 3140]

You are... the most interesting man in the board.

Damn dude, I had no idea you had so much prison rep. Now i have to go back and see what you had to say about the Faceoff episode and any other prison related episodes.

 

Edit: Also, the singular take away from that post should be the words "civil rights issue". And yeah I get that it's a Neveldine/Taylor joint, but come on. I feel like we're all past the whole running man game cliche of treating prisoners and convicts like human trash to be used in a real life GTA game.

The only other episode where I really threw around my info on my job was during the Tango & Cash episode where the hosts questioned the decorating abilities of inmates and the fact that they were being called to work, both of which are very true things in most prisons.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

I have nothing to say about this movie at all, but I wanted to throw out the other movies I got in during October because we talked about it in the last thread!

 

I rewatched Dreamcatcher since it was on AMC and I needed a refresher... still just as horribly ridiculous as I remembered. And then I got in A Nightmare Before Elm Street marathon and watched the first 4 installments. Never seen them before and I'm blown away by how genuinely amazing that first movie is! The rest... not so much...

 

Then last night I watched Hush, which I highly highly recommend! And tried to start my first full viewing of the original Halloween before I ended up falling asleep. One of these days I'm gonna actually watch the whole damn thing.

[Louisjab 50]

My favorite thing is the guy turning the whole thing off at the end. It's been expressed early on that those 2 games are the biggest money making machine in the world. That guy has the control of it, he suddenly became multi-billionaire and he destroys it without even a second thought.

 

I also like that despite Slayers being the most popular game in the world, no one else is good at this. There's this guy that's on this incredible run, and there doesn't seem to be any other good player. Everyone else dies on the first few games. he doesn't even have a rival that would like to be as popular or anything like that.

 

Last comment: the twins show the player their breast, and then go with now that we have your attention, would you like $50M for your character. So we don't know how much $50M is worth in 2034, but for sure we know 4 boobs > $50M.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

My favorite thing is the guy turning the whole thing off at the end. It's been expressed early on that those 2 games are the biggest money making machine in the world. That guy has the control of it, he suddenly became multi-billionaire and he destroys it without even a second thought.

Two things about this:

 

Someone tells that dude, "It's just a click of a mouse to you." Then he pressed a button on his tablet to turn it off. No one is using fucking mice in this reality. Like, why isn't the line, "It's just a push of a button to you"?

 

ALSO, I kind of wanted him to walk over and pull a comically large plug out of the wall to shut it off. It would have redeemed any lacking parts of this movie for me.

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

I have nothing to say about this movie at all, but I wanted to throw out the other movies I got in during October because we talked about it in the last thread!

 

I rewatched Dreamcatcher since it was on AMC and I needed a refresher... still just as horribly ridiculous as I remembered. And then I got in A Nightmare Before Elm Street marathon and watched the first 4 installments. Never seen them before and I'm blown away by how genuinely amazing that first movie is! The rest... not so much...

 

Then last night I watched Hush, which I highly highly recommend! And tried to start my first full viewing of the original Halloween before I ended up falling asleep. One of these days I'm gonna actually watch the whole damn thing.

The original Halloween is excellent. One of the only films I've ever found legitimately suspenseful.

 

I started watching Hush on Netflix and really liked it, but for some reason couldn't watch it in full. Definitely one high on my list to finish. I can't think of any horror films that have a deaf leading character, which is reason enough to pique my interest. Oh, and I read that Stephen King thinks it's great.

[ElieB 238]

Then last night I watched Hush, which I highly highly recommend! And tried to start my first full viewing of the original Halloween before I ended up falling asleep. One of these days I'm gonna actually watch the whole damn thing.

 

Ditto. Hush is a must watch for horror movies, on Netflix. Also watched this Mark Duplass joint Creep, tough to get through but worth it. Good if you can laugh your way through it.

 

On the topic of Halloween movie watching, remember when they use to just call them "Scary" movies? Now it's all "Horror" this, and "Thriller" that. It's just not the same. Like Nightmare on Elm was a straight up Scary movie lol

[taylor anne photo 11311]

The original Halloween is excellent. One of the only films I've ever found legitimately suspenseful.

So far I really like Halloween but for some reason every time I sit down to watch it I never end up having time to finish it or it's right in the middle on TV. I have about an hour left on my DVR that I'm hoping to knock out as soon as I get home.

 

Ditto. Hush is a must watch for horror movies, on Netflix. Also watched this Mark Duplass joint Creep, tough to get through but worth it. Good if you can laugh your way through it.

Creep was another choice I considered but I've heard so many things about Hush that it pushed to the top of my list! I really enjoyed Oculus by that same director as well and I'm wondering if I should actually see the new Ouija that's out cause he did that as well.

[ElieB 238]

Saw Oculus in Theatres and wasn't a big fan, despite the fact I'd watch Katee Sackhoff in anything.

On this note, I just compiled a list of movies to watch this November that are mostly in the Halloween feels:

-Train to Busan

-I am Not a Serial Killer

-Howl

-Deathgasm

-Stung

-Within

-Summer Camp

-Jackrabbit

-No Men Beyond This Point

[tomspanks 9039]

Saw Oculus in Theatres and wasn't a big fan, despite the fact I'd watch Katee Sackhoff in anything.

On this note, I just compiled a list of movies to watch this November that are mostly in the Halloween feels:

-Train to Busan

 

Highly recommend Train to Busan. Take it from me, a Hufflepuff/Wampus.

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

My favorite thing is the guy turning the whole thing off at the end. It's been expressed early on that those 2 games are the biggest money making machine in the world. That guy has the control of it, he suddenly became multi-billionaire and he destroys it without even a second thought.

 

 

See, I interpreted this to mean 'turn off MY control panel so my family can go be free,' not 'shut down the entire industry of 'Slayer''. I didn't get the sense Kable was worried that 'Slayer' was brutal, just that he wanted his wife and kid back. And the click of the mouse/button/iPad was just relating to his own brain control. Surely that makes a little more sense than turning off a whole prison industry?

[ElieB 238]

Really? it seems like the natural conclusion to these hunger games type scenarios to try and shut the whole thing down. Cause you know, it's sanctioned cruel and unsual punishment...

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

Really? it seems like the natural conclusion to these hunger games type scenarios to try and shut the whole thing down. Cause you know, it's sanctioned cruel and unsual punishment...

 

I never got the impression that was high on Kable's list of priorities. He was much more interested in doing an Andy Dufresne at the end of Shawshank impersonation: hiding away and pretending the world isn't there.

 

Ratings were high and the world domination plan was foiled: the guy with the iPad could have stepped right in and made a fortune!

[The_Other_MikeD 68]

 

OK I haven't watched this movie, and maybe this was brought up in the podcast, but I have a big question. I mean I have a bunch of little questions like wtf is the plot of this movie, is someone controlling michael C hall, is that person the villain or just another idiot playing this society game? etc. But this scene has me really confused. So people get to control convicts as avatar people in 'society', check, got that part. Sooo I figured this was a limit of one person to one avatar control, right? Cause how you gonna control multiple bodies at the same time.

 

SO, what the hell is this choreographed dance scene?? I thought they were probably all convicts and thus other players? Shouldn't they be competing? As opposed to working out dance routines? Like, they aren't robots running the same program are they? So am I supposed to understand that a dozen or so players got their avatars together and worked out a flash mob dance routine to some 70yo tune?

 

Oh so I guess there are 'bots'. That seems really fucking stupid. Bots never survive, game AIs are always shit. This is like giving those convicts a death sentence. (I'm still reading through and catching up on the thread)

 

The assistants are shown playing with their tablets so presumably they are the ones controlling the back-up dancers.