Oh, the pun hurts. Last week Dave asked everyone what their primary influences are in the Fantasy genre, and I’d say it’s no surprise at all that Tolkien Middle Earth and Lewis’ Narnia were the most common influence(77%). Next most influential were 70’s-90’s film, including Princess Bride, Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, and Willow with 44%, then Classic Myth, like Beowulf and the Odyssey with 40%. Not far behind those were modern fantasy movies like the LotR trilogy, followed by Howard’s Conan, Leiber’s Lankmar, Zelazny’s Amber, Moorcock’s Elric, etc, and then Weis & Hickman’s Dragonlance, and other D&D-inspired fiction. It’s very interesting to look at and sculpt a collective idea of what we all think Fantasy is by looking at our biggest influences and how they mesh together. Especially when it comes to any individual D&D game, which can incorporate elements from any number of the influences listed in that poll.
This week’s poll comes courtesy of my lovely wife, who has been playing Mario Kart Wii for the last two days almost non-stop. If you don’t own a Wii, or haven’t played Mario Kart on it, then surely you’ve at least seen the Wheel that comes with it and so please vote based on whether you like the idea of using it to play or not.
[poll id=”80″]
Some people have scoffed at the $10 price tag to purchase more wii wheels, others just like the use a gamecube controller because it feels familiar and comfortable from Mario Kart Double Dash. My first encounter with using the wheel was confusing and painful, but a few times after that I started to adjust and think it’s quite fun to use. What are your thoughts?
I prefer using the Wheel. That being said Mariokart Wii is my 1st ever Mario Kart game I played.
I love using the wheel myself, but Sion (whom I played plenty of Mario Kart with this weekend) says that GC controllers are the way to go for old-school MK tricks.
I also really enjoyed when DrScotto was using a remote, and held up his arms in victory when about to cross the finish line… which caused him to crash into a wall right before the end, and have several people blow past him.
There was definitely a learning curve with the wheel, but I can confidently say now that it’s my preferred method. It adds a bit of subtlety to things, and at this point I can’t imagine popping a wheelie or doing a trick jump by just pressing a button, rather than rearing back on the wheel. LAME.
So far I’m surprised by the almost 3 to 1 ratio in favor of the wheel; in my own limited straw poll I was seeing a greater sway towards the cube controller (mainly because of the aforementioned learning curve 🙂 )