Wrath

You could, but you don't actually have to. Their posts don't actually mean anything from a game standpoint. They're basically just saying "Yea! Game is getting closer! I'm totally planning on playing!" Sort of a

It can be really competitive, so take advice with a grain of salt. The one thing I can definitely tell you is to always shoot for the fences, its where all the points are. Abstaining is for wimps.

I'd be fine with that.

Fate of the Furious - 30% Case for Christ - 30%

You probably just want to steal one of my shotguns.

Wait, are you saying we should boot you early?

I estimate I have an eighty seven point three three, repeating of course, percent chance of winning this. (begins sharpening a machete) For chopping coconuts, obviously. They're high in vitamins. Those'll be important for you growing youngsters. If you survive.

Along these lines, if the rumors are true and Nathan Fillon is going to be Cable, I'm going to be very curious to see how it works out.

So, if we're not talking about Avatar anymore, I'll mention that I just drove an hour to see Great Wall, of all movies, as a favor to my daughter. For no apparent reason, my wife and younger daughter wanted to come too, so it became a family trip. I wouldn't say it was a good movie, and the English dialogue very much had a "this line was translated into English from Chinese" feel. But it was fun, was visually wonderful, and the kids were bummed out because they had a bunch of questions (what exactly is going on in that mountain to the north?) which will never be answered. If the movie's budget had been $50M, there probably would have been a sequel addressing these points, but it was a lot higher than that so there won't. I wouldn't exactly recommend it, but whenever it shows up on Netflix its enough fun to build a good drinking game around watching it.

SCREW YOU BAUMER!!!!!!

So, the way I see it, the universe just told you that you did a really good thing and that you're a good person. And it decided to karmicly reward you for it. What I'd do now is go over your finances. Is mom right? You cant be sure the universe will do that again, so be tough and figure out how bad it will be financially (and knowing plenty of doctors, I'd say it'll be bad). If you can afford it, and you feel its the right thing to do, donate the second $500 as well and feel good about it. But if your finances are a little too shaky, its ok to not donate again. Yes, its a tragedy, and you feel guilty, but don't forget that you've already helped enormously. It would be great to be able to save the day yourself, but you're not Bill Gates and you're about to take on your own huge financial burden. Don't let trying to help others force you into a place where YOU need to be helped. And finalky, try not to stress over the decision. The universe already told you that you're a good person. After thinking over your finances, whether you donate more or don't, either way it will have been the right decision and you should be at peace with it.

This can't possibly be as good as its trailer, because that would put it in Mad Max: Fury Road territory, and I'm pretty sure that's now outlawed by the Geneva Convention.

Kong 50%

This is getting good reviews? What?

I forgot about PERSEPOLIS. That was the movie from 2007 I most wanted to see but never quite managed to. I really need to watch that. I've seen more than 25 movies from 2007, but there were a number of movies I simply couldn't force myself to vote for (looking particularly hard at you, Ghost Rider) so my list has less than 25. Spider-Man 3 and Order of the Phoenix sadly didn't make the cut, either.

dun Dun DUNNNHHHHHH! I love cliffhangers!

I resemble that remark. Edit - Also, following on others' suggestions, what about something like alternating longer weeklies (like the ~20 question ones this time) with shorter ones plus SotMs? So, if SotM + Weekly, then shorter question list. If no SotM, then longer question list?

I know. It feels like an eternity to me too.

True, but my score was a serious outlier. I managed the weird feat of doing great on the pre-season while genuinely sucking at the weeklies and SOTM. Its kind of amazing, really, how my insight into box office success declined as we got closer to the release dates. Eliminating the last few folks off the list, the average person's pre-season score was 1.7-1.8 times their combined Weeklies + SoTMs. But there's an incredibly wide range. My 2.8 multiplier isn't really that much farther away from the mean than the bottom score of 1.0, and there were at least 4 other people who also managed over a 2.0. And I've certainly seen this go the other way. Iirc, two years ago when I first played the summer game, I was maybe 8th (barely in the top 10) after weeklies and SotM's, and my pre-season questions bounced me to 21st. Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. That having been said, I don't really have a problem with slightly shifting down the weight of the pre-season scores. Maybe knock off a handful of questions and some of the top 15 bonus categories? I dunno. Honestly, whatever Chasmmi and JJ-8 feel like doing sounds good to me.

You know that my strategy in the Winter Game is to announce "Im not doing anything" and then not do anything, right? Im not sure how exciting that would be narratively-speaking, but sure.

As someone who consistently sucks at the weeklies (and sucks at the SOTMs when I fail to stick to my strategy), I dislike this approach. BUT... I can see some logic in not making the preseason questions quite as big a chunk of the possible points.

Sorry, I will. I was just catching up on this other, um, thing.

I have two daughters (13 and 10), and on Sunday afternoons we meet up with a bunch of other folks at a local park and kill each other with foam swords. Its great fun and excellent exercise which I badly need. So I was out running errands this morning, watching the results come in. And then got the kids and the stuff to the park, and just as we were getting started I saw the final two posts. Having been 15th after the weeklies, I was thrilled to even have a shot at the top 5, so coming in 2nd to Tele felt like a huge win to me. Other than the minor point of having missed 3-4 weeklies (plus the make-up week) and thus having potentially cost myself the win. But it still felt great and I spent 2 happy hours hacking children into small pieces. I'm still not entirely sure that I won, but assuming for the moment that I did, I'd congradulate Tele for amazing movie prognosticating, as well as being such a strong preserving force on these forums. We're all here because of the great people and leadership here and much of that is thanks to Tele. And you can tell how calm and steady his leadership is because I'd have banned Chasmmi and JJ in a rage. I suspect he has a dimmer view of the scoring system now. Also, respect to the other players, especially JakeGittes and WrathofHan who both played excellent games. My new book "Abstaining your way to Victory" should be out soon. I recommend it. Also, a special thanks to Beelzebub. Couldn't have done it without you, man. I'm sure the price won't be that steep. Right? Finally, JJ-8 and Chasmmi. Its insane how good you two are at this. Your incredible patience, dedication, professionalism and accuracy is beyond compare. If there was any justice, statues would be erected in your honor and schools of actuarial studies would be named after you. And now I'm DEFINITELY not rooting for the tetnus. Thanks for the great game.

I'm... Wait, what?

77k dammit. Grats, Tele! Awesome performance!