Google Wave looks fantastic!

So I've been sick. Days off of work, a bad case of laryngitis, you know.

Sick.

(Is this not how you expected this to start? It ties in together - trust me.)

After losing my voice completely on Monday of last week, I was at my doctor's office Tuesday. Got some antibiodics and a steroid prescribed to me. I then went on my way and had a week off with no talking (Lisa was in heaven). Come Monday of this week I went back to work... for a few hours, but had to leave early because my voice was failing again. Out of the steroids and concerned that there was something wrong with me other than my original diagnosis I went BACK to my doctor that Tuesday.

(Quick add: having health insurance again is a gods-send...)

So I get to sit in the waiting room for a bit, no biggie. I pick up a copy of... hmm... I think it was Time Magazine, and I notice this headline on the cover about an article on something called "Google Wave".

(Promised you it all tied-in.)

Curious I checked out the article, and... well... noted it as something for future curiosity, but didn't think much about it. Later I was speaking with my friend Eric who was really excited about having finally found a group of gamers in Madison, WI where he's going to school. He mentioned that the group wanted to try using Google Wave as a means to host roleplaying games since they all live a fair distance from each other.

Whaaaat? This bore a little more investigation.

So when I got home from getting my new steroid I did a little google-fu and quickly found Google Wave's demonstration videos. I started to watch so I could see what this app was actually meant for.

I'm impressed.

Imagine fusing e-mail and instant messaging with document publishing and pretty much every other form of communication used through the internet with the exception of voice. That's what you get with Google Wave. You start a new conversation (or as they call it, a Wave) and then add recipients who then get to see the Wave live. From this point they can send replies (like normal e-mail), if multiple Wave members are online they can respond instantly, just like an IM (and you'll actually see what they're typing AS they type it no "Grant is typing" messages that might mean I'm typing to someone else or responding to you). You can go into previous messages and post a reply mid-message to draw attention to the fact that you're only responding to that particular point (a bit more organic method than the current "all comments after the whole body of text" method we currently use). You can even go back and edit a previous post; say you're planning a trip with someone and using a Wave to create a list of activities to do on that trip... by editing the original message those new ideas can be compiled in one spot (easier to reference), and someone can post a reply right under that idea (issuing a complaint or focusing a question), or even edit your idea further to build on it. If you want to know what the ORIGINAL post (or any earlier post) looked like, they have a "playback" feature where you can revisit the history of the Wave.

Pictures can be uploaded, blogs and social networking sites can be added as members of the Wave (allowing instant posting of that Wave to the blog or network site... which others can then in turn use to interact with the Wave)... It looks like a great business application for communication and facilitation, and I can see it having a lot of private user applications as well.

So now I'm all excited about it, and want to try it out. The only problem is, Google Wave is available by invitation only, and they're hard to get. Mostly just developers and industry folks at this point. But wait, didn't I say Eric & his friends were going to have inivites? I sure did! And I coolly asked for one. The deal was this: I play in the game, I get the invite. I've accepted the offer, though I haven't gotten my invite yet (hell, the offer was just made last night at around 10:00). Just to play it safe, I've requested an invite from the Google Wave staff as well... hopefully going both routes will get me one!

(Anyone reading this have invites to send out? I'll take one!)

How would gaming work over Wave? Well, I've got a few things to iron out. First, there's no dice app. This isn't such a horrible thing; there are lots of dice apps online. Second, we'd need a way to see encounter maps... which I can post a pic, but I'm not sure about updating to facilitate combat in an organic manner, unless Wave already has an image editor built into it. (I guess I could always make the images layered and use GIMP to change different layers to match, but that will take some time.)

Other than those technical details (and I confess, they aren't insignificant) here's how I see a game session running:

(Assume that anything starting with a > would be text in the Wave.... '>' is only a place-holder to show where the Wave starts.)

1) I (assume I'm running it for the moment) start a new wave:

> Game Session October 22, 2009

2) I post a quick recap of the previous session as part of my first post to refresh everyone's memories.

> Recap of previous session: Last time you decided to explore the rumors of a haunted castle in the Thundercrag mountains. To reach the mountains you had to brave the dark forest of Venomleaf. Here's a quick list of what happened:

• You first heard the rumor while at the Greenscale Tavern in Wyrmoth; apparently the former lords had amassed a large horde and then turned on one another in greed, murdering each other. Now their ghosts haunt the castle.
• You reached the Venomleaf Forest with no problems; you had a small encounter with a merchant who tried to swindle you, but you saw through his lies and didn't buy any of his fake charms.
• You navigated the forest, but discovered that it was inhabited by a tribe of feral elves. You stumbled into an ambush (failed that Skill Challenge!) and ended up getting captured.
• The elves were going to have you for dinner, but their shaman came up with an alternative; you retake the daughter of the tribe's Chief from the green dragon Venomleaf, and they'd provide you with a guide to the mountains.
• You found Venomleaf's lair and have explored through two levels of it, facing some guardians (plant monsters and other such creatures) and traps.
• We ended the session with the party at the top of a flight of stairs going deeper into the lair, and you each made Perception checks to hear the sound of loud, heavy breathing and smell the rank, foul air down below.

3) Now I can continue with the next text in my Wave. I could either reply to my previous post to break the two apart, or just continue in the same body. We'll assume I continued.

> When you decide to go down the stairs: The darkness down below is oppressive. The stairs wind, making your torchlight's reach quite limited. Drops of condensation fall periodically, startling you at times. The air grows more foul the lower you get. At the bottom of the stairs you find a large set of double doors - wide enough for three of you to squeeze through at one time. The doors are carved with ornate images of a dragon clutching a forest in it's claws while smoke or fumes spread from it's mouth.

What do you do?

4) At this point my job is done, and the players get to interact. Now, someone might want to edit my recap and point out their favorite part of the last session; I'll represent that with a new '>' and the speaker with [name]: to represent that the Wave would identify the speaker.

> Recap of previous session: Last time you decided to explore the rumors of a haunted castle in the Thundercrag mountains. To reach the mountains you had to brave the dark forest of Venomleaf. Here's a quick list of what happened:

• You first heard the rumor while at the Greenscale Tavern in Wyrmoth; apparently the former lords had amassed a large horde and then turned on one another in greed, murdering each other. Now their ghosts haunt the castle.
• You reached the Venomleaf Forest with no problems; you had a small encounter with a merchant who tried to swindle you, but you saw through his lies and didn't buy any of his fake charms.
• You navigated the forest, but discovered that it was inhabited by a tribe of feral elves. You stumbled into an ambush (failed that Skill Challenge!) and ended up getting captured.
• The elves were going to have you for dinner, but their shaman came up with an alternative; you retake the daughter of the tribe's Chief from the green dragon Venomleaf, and they'd provide you with a guide to the mountains.

> [Eric]: I still say we could have taken them! This deal was stupid, we could have wiped the floor with them!

> [John]: You're insane.

• You found Venomleaf's lair and have explored through two levels of it, facing some guardians (plant monsters and other such creatures) and traps.

> [John]: I really liked that trap with the living vines.

> [Grant]: Me too! Had a lot of fun coming up with that one!

• We ended the session with the party at the top of a flight of stairs going deeper into the lair, and you each made Perception checks to hear the sound of loud, heavy breathing and smell the rank, foul air down below.

5) You can see above that I've included multiple responses to indicate the more organic, conversational nature of what I foresee with a gaming Wave. Future responses would be similar in nature.

Like I said, right now I'm not sure how you would handle combat maps and dice rolling... I have tools to do all of that online, but let's face it, that won't really test out using Google Wave for this sort of thing, now will it?

Another feature I like is that I could post the whole session right to this blog, allowing players to review the whole thing whenever they want, even if they're not signed into Google Wave, and also allowing my blog readers (the whole, what, 1 of you?) to see the session as well, and possibly comment.

So to sum up: Google Wave looks like a great app to facilitate conversations, and I really can't wait to try it out!

End of Demented Rambling.

Blech

Wow. I think this might be the longest time between posts. Ever.

I've been busy. Lisa & the kids were sick for a while (Lisa isn't 100% better yet). Lisa also started back to school, and that's consumed a lot of her time. Meanwhile, I've gotten their cold (blech). I've had to call off a few times, but today I went in.

Apparently, this was a mistake.

My voice is gone.

My throat feels swollen.

I cannot shake the feeling that I've progressed to strep throat.

At the very least, work is hazardous to my voice right now. I mean, this is bad. It hurts to swallow, hurts to talk (not that I really can). And the worst part? My voice was gone by 2:00 today. I went to a supervisor and asked what I could do. The response I got? "It's Monday, so I can't just send you home. If you want to leave you can, but it will be an occurance." (not an exact quote.) I was served with 2 occurances today from previous days I'd called off, and after 6 you can potentially be terminated. So I stayed. And my voice got worse. And people had problems understanding me.

Hurray for work.

So if my voice is still like this tomorrow I'll be calling off and contacting my doctor. They can just try to serve me with an occurance with a doctor's excuse. What bullshit. I followed all of the rules; I'm only supposed to be penalized for no-call no-shows... neither of which happened. Hell, I've called off before with no penalty whatsoever!

The next time someone nominates work for "Best Place to Work" I think I'll ask them how much they get paid for their nomination. This treatment is intolerable.

End of Demented Rambling.

Evony Review

Free Browser Game Review: Evony

A game with several flaws that still delivers an addictive play experience.

If you frequent sites such as RPG.net or Facebook, you will likely have seen banner ads of buxom women in medieval garb asking how they may serve you. And at some point you will decide to click on one of those banners and see what this game is all about. You may indeed be surprised to discover that Evony, the game advertised on these banners, is actually a real-time strategy massively multiplayer online game. I certainly was. Once you get over this surprise you might decide to create an account, log in to a server, and begin to build your empire.

This was my first experience with Evony. I lept straight in, with no instructions whatsoever to get me started. I selected a name for my account, Lothair, and selected at random a server, in this case 63. Picking a name for my city (originally Lorraine, until I realized there was a nation with the same name; currently by city is called Wroat as an homage to the Eberron Campaign Setting).Getting started was simple; a Quest tab gave me several suggested actions in return for a reward in resources and allowed me to get started with building cottages to increase my city's population, farms to feed my subjects, and other sources of necessary resources.

Shortly after my introduction to Evony I was contacted by a nearby neighbor, Asterix who invited me to join the Alliance he hosted, known as TheGauls. I probed Asterix with several questions, and joined his Alliance out of gratitude for the prompt answers. This has turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made in the game. My Alliance is very active, full of friendly members quick to help each other whenever needed. If reading this review persuades you to try Evony out, I strongly encourage you to start you city in Friesland and then get in contact with a member of TheGauls and ask for an invitation; it will greatly aid you in getting started.

Having played for a week now, I have come to find a number of very positive points for Evony, but also several flaws with the game. To begin with the positive, Evony starts its players off with a week-long beginner's period that allows new players the opportunity to work on building their city without worry of being attacked during that period. As my Alliance went to war with another Alliance, it was a great comfort to know that I could keep building in safety.

Evony is also game that does not require a great deal of attention. You can get working on a project in your city, like upgrading a building, and then walk away content that your attention is not need for a few minutes (or hours when you get to higher levels of upgrades). I can happily sign on as I eat my breakfast, decide what to work on while I'm gone, and then leave for work knowing that there is nothing else I could do while I was gone. After I return from work me projects will (mostly) be finished, and my city will be ready for me to choose new projects. The only downside to this is that if I'm looking forward to working on several projects for the night I'll be disappointed, because upgrading a building might take half a day or more, leaving me with little to do until I finish that project, or restore my expended resources.

A key element to gameplay in Evony is attacking other players. A variety of cities will surround yours. Some will be NPCs, but many will be ruled by other live players. Beyond cities there are other areas (collectively called Valleys) that provide a boost to a particular type of resource production if you control it. Attacking an area might allow you to conquer it, or you may just plunder the area, allowing your armies to return with a fresh supply of a resource. Marching to attack a city or valley takes a certain amount of real time, though the fighting takes place in the blink of an eye. As I write this review, my armies are returning from attack a rival city 17.3 miles away from Wroat. They still have 46 minutes, 30 seconds until they are back in my city and ready to march again. This is both a benefit and a curse, for while I can rest easy knowing that I will have time before any opponents attack my currently defenseless city, I know that it will take at least two hours for the gratification of getting to attack my opponent again, and there is nothing else I can do in the game. My forces are all committed, my city is busy upgrading a barracks, and my academies still have an hour to go with their current research, and I don't have the resources to produce enough additional troops to be worth the time.

This is my major complaint with Evony. While I love that I can leave for work and see the results of my labors upon my return, I agonize over the lack of things I can do at a time. I am capable of building multiple barracks in a city, allowing me to produce a different type of troop in each barracks, albeit limited in numbers based on my resources, and a second Academy in another city would allow me more research options. However, I can only work on one building project per city. I can't even build another building to allow more production, or just create a queue to get started. Time is your most valuable resource in Evony, and the long production times eventually lead to waste. Is it better to upgrade a single building to a higher level when I could choose to upgrade multiple other buildings in the same time frame, but get a smaller return from those upgrades? That's a major aspect of gameplay, but it would be nice to know that I could get my next upgrade started while I was gone. Even if I could only have 2 projects in my building queue, one currently being worked on and another ready to go, it would still allow me to feel like I was maximizing my time more efficiently.

In terms of a technical review, Evony plays with fine on my browser, though I have experienced trouble at time when I first load it. Whether this is because of an issue with Google Chrome, or just a flaw in the game's code I am uncertain. Usually reloading the page clears up the trouble, and takes little time. So it's a minor irritation, but it is there nonetheless. I also feel the game could have a better layout. Canceling an attacking army requires you to navigate into first the Reports tab, then Army Movement, and then finally clicking on the report for the individual army that I want to recall. And during this whole time there is a progress bar showing how long it will take for my army to reach its destination. Why not just put a cancel button next to that bar and let me cancel it with a single click? Other odd layout choices could be cleared up with a slight change to layout. A “buy” or “sell” button next to a resource could easily make using the marketplace more intuitive. There are other areas where things could be cleared up to make things easier for the player, but these are good examples to get things started, and listing too many of them would make these flaws seem like they take more away from the game than they really do. Each of the flaws are surmountable, but the fact that there are so many of them makes me wonder why the game designers decided to create the game the way they did.

In conclusion, Evony is a fun game. People who love the strategy involved in managing multiple resources while challenging other players will enjoy this game. Despite the fun of this game, there are several flaws that I hope the designers are able to clear up with a patch to the game. Despite these flaws, the large players base says it all; people are having fun playing this game, and so am I. I encourage you to sign up a free account and try it out for yourself. If you do, send a message to Lothair and I'll get you in touch with a fun Alliance who can help answer questions and make navigating the game easier.

Don't bug me!

Ok, it's been a couple of weeks since my last post... again. If any of you actively read this, I'm sorry.

This weekend has failed to be relaxing in any way. We found fleas on the cats, again, and decided to take drastic measures. 3 foggers and an evacuated house later, and we hope we've seen the last of our flea infestation. Had to spend a good chunk of Saturday at my parents' house while they were away in France (hope you guys are having fun!), with the cats confined to a single bathroom, and Lisa, Lex and myself enjoying the slaughter... I mean football game (Caleb & Cassandra were at the other house).

Sunday was largely spent trying to put everything back in place, wash, wipe-down, and vacuum the house. Lisa re-arranged the living room furniture... still not sure what I think of it, but she likes it and so do the kids, so I guess my opinion is over-ruled regardless!

That's all for now... I need to leave for work in a few minutes. Coming soon will be a review of the browser-based game Evony I've been playing for the last week or so!

End of Demented Rambling.

Friday the 13th: Remake!

So Lisa and I just watched Friday the 13th (the new one, not the original). I went into with mixed feelings. I wanted to watch it mainly because Jared Padalecki stars in it (for any Supernatural fans out there, that would be the actor who plays Sam), and because I liked the original Ft13, though I never watched any of the rest of the series. I'd heard some bad things about this movie however, and many times remakes don't live up to our expectations. So what to think about this movie?

I liked it!

What, you want more? Ok!

This movie isn't really a remake of the original. It's a retelling of the series, with elements from several of the movies. Rather than being an origin of the slasher we know (and love) as Jason, the new Ft13 gives us a brief bit of history (basically the final confrontation with Mrs. Vorhees in the original) where we get to see Jason discover his mother's dead body. We also hear Mrs. Vorhees' voice whispering in Jason's head to punish 'them' (if you don't know the history of the series you might not realize that this means horney teens, because you might miss her explanation of why she's killing people).

Cut to something like 20 years later. We get a long extended scene where we meet a group of campers who are exploring the woods near Camp Crystal Lake in search of some marijuana that is supposed to be growing in the woods. All of these characters lack any memorable qualities to them other than Whitney, who ends up being a major character. We get to watch Jason butcher all the campers, right after some gratuitous sex (because all 80's Slasher-flicks need gratuitous sex... I think there's actually a law somewhere demanding it). The screen fades to black right as Jason is about to strike Whitney, leaving her fate a mystery, and cutting to the title of the film.

Six weeks later...

A group of kids (maybe teenagers, more likely college students) are going to spend the weekend at "Trent's" family home in the woods (across the lake from the abandoned Camp Crystal Lake!!). Trent is a major asshole, and we get that impression right from the beginning when he is waiting in line to pay for his gas and starts bitching because Clay Miller (Padalecki) is talking to the cashier, trying to hang a flier for his missing sister, Whitney (see how that all ties back around?). Trent tries to claim that Clay is an "asshole" because he's stopping him from paying for his gas and going. Clay stays very non-confrontational and does his best to ignore Trent. Trent's girlfriend, Jenna, sympathises with Clay and gets pissed at Trent for they way he's acting.

Clay continues travelling around the area, trying to ask locals if they've seen his sister. He has an encounter with the local sherrif who tells Clay to give it up; they've already searched for Whitney and her friends, and turned up nothing. The sherrif thinks maybe she ran off with her boyfriend. Clay protests that Whitney wouldn't do that; their mother just died of cancer, and until this trip Whiteny took care of her every day. When Whitney didn't show for the funeral, Clay knew there was a problem and came looking. Clay continues his search, with no luck, though one local tells him that "missing" in this area means "dead" and he should just get out of there while he still can.

Trent & co get to his house. We soon discover that Trent can't really stand his "friends" and that he basically invited them for the weekend so he could show off how rich his family is. He tries to convince Jenna to go have sex with him, but she's not up for it; she'd rather go hiking, and she's pissed at the way he's treating everybody. (Side note; Trent is played by "Travis Van Winkle"... his name even sounds like a rich asshole's name! He looks the part too, and every movie I've seen him in, he's an asshole... talk about born to a role...)

Two of Trent's friends decide to check out the other side of the lake, and Trent lends them his car to prove that he can be nice to everyone... then he asks them to take gas to the family boat and threatens his friend if they take the boat on the lake. The pair leave and immediately make plans to go water skiing. Clay shows up at the house, still looking for Whitney. Jenna invites him in to get something to drink, but Trent throws a fit. Jenna, now completely pissed at Trent, offers to go with Clay to the other side of the river.

As the two walk we learn that Clay and Whitney have had a major falling out; Clay skipped out on his family when he was 17, and the last time he and Whitney spoke they got into a fight. Guilt is part of what's motivating him to look for her.

Meanwhile, remember the two idiots who went along to the other side of the lake? Well we get to see more gratuitous topless scenes (note: in a Slasher, topless means "we're done with you, time to die"). The boyfriend is shot in the head with an arrow (I love that part, he even turns and "poses" for the camera), and the girlfriend is clipped by the boat. This doesn't kill her though... we save that for Jason, who stabs her in the head with a machete (another nice death scene).

At the camp Clay and Jenna get the creeps while exploring the place (it's night now, and the place is ruined... a natural reaction). As they leave they spot Jason coming into the camp and hide. There they realize he's carrying a dead body. Jason realizes that someone is there, but can't find them. He goes on to the caverns he's using as his home while Clay and Jenna flee back to Trent's house. Down in the caverns we discover Whitney alive and chained.

Confused? Well, that's because I left something out... Whitney resembles Mrs. Vorhees in her younger years. Jason's being sentimental because of the resemblance. It's mentioned early on, I just didn't feel the need to say anything.

At Trent's house Trent and his friend Bree have decided to go have sex (woo hoo, the asshole is real faithful to his girlfriend). This has some great dialogue... ok, not great but it's funny because Trent can't stop saying how great Bree's breasts are (yup, more gratuitous sex!).

Clay and Jenna arrive, Jason following, and the killing begins. First he kills off two of the other friends (I haven't mentioned them yet because they're really not that important... which is unfortunate, because they're the token Asian and Black Guy you often find in these films, and they really could have been made into much more interesting characters). Then, while Trent is yelling at Jenna for being gone 8 hours with Clay (he claims they've been having sex all over the woods), Jason kills Bree. Trent goes for a gun, but starts shooting everything. The sherrif shows up... and Jason kills him. Trent, Jenna, and Clay make a break for it. Trent dies. Finally.

Jenna and Clay make it back to Camp Crystal Lake (minor nitpick... it's still night, but the way they've made things sound it takes a few hours at least to get there... wouldn't it be daylight by now?) and discover Whitney. And then....

Nope. Not doing it. See the movie.

(Here's a hint. Remember the VERY END of the original? When Jason jumps out of the water and grabs the girl in the boat? Last scene is an homage to that, but different in its own way.)

Like I said, I liked it. It has some story issues, but most slashers do. And we don't watch slasher for the story so much. We watch them because we like the villain, we like the violence, and we like the gratuitous chest shots! This movie gets about 4 out of 5 from me. Give it a chance, it makes for a great entry point to restart the whole series with fresh material.

End of Demented Rambling.

Ding, Dong, The Crib is GONE!!!

Not gone as in, broken or destroyed.

Gone as in, not in our bedroom anymore!

Yay!!!!!

Finally, Lisa and I might be able to sleep through night without Lex joining us in bed!!!

Seriously, if you don't understand the JOY this brings us, I think something might be wrong with you!

End of demented rambling.

Repo: The Genetic Opera

We just picked up the DVD release of Repo! The Genetic Opera the other day. This was a direct-to-DVD release of the cult classic musical of the same name. Lisa and I first encountered this during a preview of the film at the Scream Award Ceremonies on Spike TV. I became interested in it and finally rented it when it first came out. We finally got around to buying it the other day.

I love this movie, and I don't normally like musicals.

(Ignore Chicago, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods... seriously, I don't like musicals... these are exceptions... really...)

The story is set in the future, when GeneCo, a company specializing in organ replacement surgeries, has saved mankind by perfecting organ transplants. They've created a system where customers can finance their surgeries, obtaining organs they desperately need, but can't necessarily afford at the time. But there's a catch; until that financing is paid off, the organs belong to GeneCo, and if you miss a payment, GeneCo wants its property back. To regain their organs they send out the Repo Man, a special employee who surgically removes the organ, ending the defaulting customer's life in the process.

The current Repo Man is a former doctor who cares for his ailing daughter, Shiloh, who has recently turned 17. Shiloh suffers from the same unnamed condition that took her mother's life before Shiloh was born (her father was able to save her, but at the cost of his wife's life). With Shiloh as his only family left, he keeps her locked away in their house, claiming that she can't leave because of the strict medication schedule needed to keep her sickness at bay.

Like most 17 year olds, Shiloh has found a way around this. She has learned to pick the lock to her door and escape through secret tunnels to the outside world where she collects bugs and revels in being outside (these tunnels are actually used by her father when he's acting as the Repo Man... though she has no idea of his secret identity). While outside, Shiloh encounter the story's narrator, a character called Graverobber (played by one of the opera's writers in both the film and the theatrical productions). Graverobber collects some kind of fluid from corpes to create Zydrate, a drug that takes away the agony of surgery... and is highly addictive. He peddles this drug to addicts on the street. Graverobber gets Shiloh in trouble to save his own skin, and Shiloh is saved from GeneCo's security forces (who mistake her for a graverobber) by the Repo Man (remember, she doesn't know about the Repo Man or that he's her father).

Later Shiloh escapes again, and meets Rotti Largo, the founder and CEO of GeneCo, who is dying of a fatal disease and trying to decide which of his three degenerate children he will leave GeneCo to. Shiloh becomes worried about what will happen to here and flees, being saved by Graverobber (who perhaps feels guilty about using her before). Graverobber educates Shiloh about Zydrate's uses (though he doesn't use it on her), and we encounter Rotti's daughter (Amber Sweet), who is addicted to Zydrate (at the same time that she is in charge of a Zydrate-addict support group) and comes to Graverobber to keep her addiction a secret. Amber is insaely jealous of Blind Mag, GeneCo's most visible representative (Mag has eyes given to her by GeneCo, and is the star attraction of their "genetic opera" which fans flock to in order to testify about how GeneCo has changed their lives, and to hear Mag sing). Amber wants Mag's spotlight badly, and hates comparisons between the two of them (perhaps uncosciously knowing that she can't compete with Mag's voice). When Shiloh makes a comment about Mag around Amber, the dilletante goes into a rage swearing that Mag's spotlight will be her's just as soon as the Repo Man takes care of her.

See, Mag is leaving GeneCo, but there's a fine print to her contract: she got her eyes in exchange for representing GeneCo, and should she ever leave they get the eyes back. Mag is aware of this, and doesn't care. Shiloh is panicked by this, and her panic becomes worse as GeneCo security tracks them down (they're looking for Amber). Graverobber helps Shiloh out again, and gets her home.

There, Shiloh encounters Mag, who turns out to be Shiloh's godmother! Mag had been told that Shiloh had died with her mother, and wants only to meet Shiloh. When Shiloh's father returns Shiloh begs him to help Mag, but the two bicker instead, with Shiloh's father refusing.

The next night is the Genetic Opera, Mag's last performance, and the moment when Rotti plans on revealing his terminal condition and naming his heir. I've left out a lot of background, and I won't continue the tale, because I don't want to ruin it for anyone. It's a great film though, and I highly encourage anyone with a stomach for gory effects (think about what the Repo Man does) to check it out and give it a fair chance.

End of Demented Rambling.