hear, hear!

TheRamsesII Now, this is completely unrelated but I'm going to say it anyways. You were probably going for the great Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt with that username, but all I could think of was a 'Ramsell in distress.'

TheErebusGaming LOL! okay. I lived in Cairo for 3 years and got the benefit of experiencing much of the history there - ancient and current. My first YT handle was simply "RamsesII" (no one else ever thought of it) then I couldn't sign on once for some reason, tried to renew and they said, 'that user name is already taken'! ah, well...so now I am "THE" Ramses II...

TheRamsesII I guess Egypt is technically in Africa, but I lived in the Middle East too, and got similarly hooked on some of the history. Also, I'm pretty sure I've seen a semi-well-known youtuber called Ramses or something, so maybe that was the issue.

TheErebusGaming the first handle was at least 5 or 6 years ago, so perhaps someone else did a variation on it. Egypt considers itself part of the Mid-East, although it is in North Africa. Even in three years I barely scratched the surface of all the cool stuff to see in Egypt - and it's not all historical. Had a tour of Jordan with the same guide (one-on-one) who took Bill Clinton and Kofi Anan on similar tours. Took some trips to Sub-Sarharan Africa, too. I am hooked on it, and have other "bucket list" trips planned for Africa, but just don't have the time or the means at the moment.

Same

I want to sit on his lap and fall asleep while he talks about his various creations

Tell me a story GRRM.

I think you mean... ...George, of House Martin, First of His Name, The Immortal Storyteller, Creator of Ice and Fire, Father of Fantasy, The Tolkien of Our Time, Admirer of Shakespeare and Stan Lee, The True Azor Ahai, Khal of the Great Grass Sea, the Supreme Emperor of Westeros and Essos, Savior of HBO, The Terror of Weddings and Cheeseburgers, Master of Ships, Master of Coin, Master of Whispers, High Septon, Sealord of Braavos, Archmaester of the Citadel, Lord Commander of the Martinguard, Warden of the World, The Final Winner of the Game of Thrones, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the Valyrians and the Ghiscari and the Asshai'i and the Giants and the Children and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Beyond, and Protector of the Realm

Jax Martell Fist of His Name?

Yep

Jax Martell You forgot Sealord of Braavos

Jax Martell minus savior of hbo. i think they've helped each other equally.

If you watch GoT interviews you always have poeple who try to complain about the books/the show not being PC enough. Wannabe femenists bitching about that rape is bad therfore it shouldnt be in the shows/books. Other want more colored poeple, others complain that the slaves are colored poeple etc. Its not that wierd at this point for poeple to immidiatly have a defensive reaction to this stuff

The problem isn't that he asked, the problem is how he asked. The interviewer is insinuating that Martin perpetuates "white privilege".

I didn't get any of that I think it was a fair question and Martin gave a fair answer. Some of you guys are to sensitive.

John Smith he has dozens of interviews like these and there is always one or few poeple who pull this shit.

Blazekingz so?

***** Games are art, period. Who are you to make the distinction which ones are and which aren't? If you go to modern art galleries, there are some stupid stuff on display there. Sculptures of men sucking themselves off, crude and poorly drawn pictures of vaginas etc. but still they're called art and are on display. Why are they art and video games are not? Where do you draw the line?

***** A game like Candy Crush might not have any appeal to you, but it's still created out of art assets, sounds and graphics which are handcrafted and put together by people. It's the creative process that's the key defining factor here instead of the actual content. Entertainment and art aren't mutually exclusive. Witcher is just as much created for entertainment as Candy Crush is. I personally don't like games like Candy Crush either, but I wouldn't undermine the creative process just because it looks simplistic.

Deathshuck If we are not to define every creative process as art, we have to draw the line somewhere. Subjectively. This is just like.. your opinion, man. Some would say art is in the process, not the product. Your reasoning is solid, but it is yours. Seven blessings on you, Ser!

I Saturnine Objectively though, games should be regarded as an art form. Just because there exists a couple of "bad eggs" it doesn't diminish the medium's artistic value as a whole. The definition should derive from the highest point, not the lowest. That applies to just about every form of art there is. Everyone has heard bad music, seen bad paintings or read a terrible book. Do those examples cease the medium from being considered as art? Of course not. Seven blessings!

I do not disagree with you on that. The art lies not in the quality of the product, but in the sincerity of the creative process. 'Apply yourself'. It does however remain a question of definition. To define art and even creativity is not done easily. The limits are not defined clearly. A knife can be art, or utility, or both, depending on who you ask, and when. :)

Try Elric of Melniboné. :D

+1911Odyssey thanks I will!

YES!

i always wished HBO would do a robert's rebellion film. perhaps maybe even a volume 1 and 2. i don't feel it's so complicated to need an entire television season.

Good point. To add, it's as if people believe that all Europeans drew from all of the same cultures... as if they equate the French, English, Italians, and Scandavians as having the same culture. They are all so different, it's a bit strange people go this "monocultural" route. People say white culture is not diverse... I disagree tremendously so. They are just uninformed and stubborn.

I wouldn't even call it monoracial because European isn't a race. The best word I could think of is western. It all derives from the proto indo-European religion.

@@H41030v3rki110ny0u it’s a very american way of viewing the world. In Europe we aren’t grouping ourselves based on skin color as is done in the US. The different cultures are way more dividing than just what race you are. The US doesn’t really have these big cultural differences between groups of similar ethnic backgrounds because it’s a very young country.

Edge Master You are 100% wrong and George is on record setting this issue straight. It’s on KZfaq.. It all comes down to the extras they hired for the locations they filmed, and nothing more. Read the books and find that interview from 2016 ... no racism at all ;)

Most of northern essos is white. The Andals migrated to westeros from the Axe (nothern essos) They're basically Saxons.

Its probably so cringey when most white people try to write a pov from a "minority". That being said i dont even recall any kind of particular racial issues in ASOIAF that arent directly cultural/geographical. So if there was a POV of a Summerislander it wouldnt neccesarily be expected of them to face racism or adversity based on their skin color in the world of asoiaf.

Have you read the books yet?

@@8mmkyle865 Why would he since the man is never going to finish them? After the first season of the show I went back and read it, decided to do the same thing for season 2 since I hate when I watch something and I keep thinking the book is better. Read the second book, but then when I was going to read the third one, I was told by a friend "just so you know the man is not going to finish, he's written himself into a corner and the fifth book was a miracle it didn't take longer because of how long he was stuck rewriting a major plot points by writing 1 chapter from several POVs perspective and he doesn't even write a chapter a month anymore, I can't tell you more without spoiling". Turns out my friend was right.

You gorgot the most important, Elder Scrolls

FreakLPer Game of Thrones - A Telltale Game too :P

SomeNiceMovies i He most likely know about the telltale game and have seen it. Maybe he even helped making it.

He is a baby boomer in his defense

Bethesda were offered the chance to make a ASOIAF open-world game, but they chose to work on Skyrim instead. There's definitely a lot of ASOIAF (and other fantasy) influences which bled over into Skyrim.

Windhelm is really Stark like, and Solitude is really similar to the Lannisters for example.

Agus Tin Pretty sure the books were written long before Skyrim ever came out. A good decade at least. That being said as George often says....if your going to steal, steal from the best.

Well what I'm saying is that Windhelm is inspired in Winterfell and Solitude is inspired in Casterly Rock, and I can continue naming comparisons. The developers said that they based most of their world in asoiaf stuff.

Skyrim*, not the Elder Scrolls, I didn't play all the games I can only talk about Skyrim.

In one interview the last game he played as a NES game, can't remember which, can't blame a guy who has literally no idea what games have become, is 70+ years old and have not kept up to date except being paid a lot of money to write the pre-pre story for Elden ring. Maybe that gave him a tiny more insight than before he had this interview. But teaming up with From Software is not the right move if you wanted him to understand video games. Sure it was good for him getting paid, and it was good for From Software who managed to get people who have no idea how to play Souls games to buy it. But they didn't really use much of what he wrote. Essentially what they did was hire him to write some lore, plaster his name all over it, and then just do what they always do. Act is it there is a story there that more than 2% of gamers are going to understand while the rest just play and then look up Wikis and videos to understand what it was they just did to who. It's actually too bad, I would have loved since their next game is going to have to be a hit, that CDPR had gone to him and made a game set in ASOIAF. They could get rid of the clunky gameplay because they would mainly need to create a sword combat system as good or better than Sekiro or Ghost of Tushima, along with being able to use shield, some other weapons, a bow, daggers etc. And then the big mechanic would be flying up and down Westoros on a dragon as your mount while settling disputes between the various houses. I have many friends who didn't play Witcher 1 and 2, and while they had real fun playing it, they did not understand most of what was happening in the game. And the Witcher show season 1 being split into two timelines didn't help when it throws so many things at you are once as if you are supposed to know what they are. Something game of thrones did too but they had spesific characters who functions was your eyes into new areas making the transition easier.

Kyle Witcher

David McGinness

As George R.R. Martin mentioned he hasnt, otherwise he wouldnt say that

I know, but he also outright stated they were art. Even though the nature of art is dependent on those reacting to it. And it has been too long since Martin took a good look at gaming for him to construct a true opinion.

Joe Findley I think he was talking about his new book, The World of Ice and Fire, look it up.

moi

+gary kearney Yup

Don't be like Kathy bates in the movie misery... lol (if u don't know about that movie, look it up...it's good)

Randy Mason Jr. You had to be born on another Planet Not to know about Misery. lol

Noted how he accused it of being monoculture, like the dothrak and dorn and the wildlings share the same culture.

It was awfully presumptuous of him to ask "How can we change that?" without knowing the reasons why it is the way it is and just assuming it was for bad reasons and that superficially adding visible minorities would in any way improve it and not cheapen it. Also hard to not notice the double standard that you never see anyone asking non-whites these questions like in the Afro-futurist genres etc.

@@Throku "Noted how he accused it of being monoculture, like the dothrak and dorn and the wildlings share the same culture." How did you note that? He started out by praising The World of Ice & Fire, the book that is, for showing more of the world, specifically places influenced by asia, north africa and the middle east and then asked why fantasy, as in the genre, in general is so monocultural. I mean the guy is clearly familiar with Martins work. Where you see an accusation, I see a question and one that prompted an interesting answer. Thankfully George RR Martin isn't as thin-skinned and paranoid as you are.

Well he did actually write a book called game of thrones haha

No, he wrote a book called "A Game Of Thrones".

A lot more people see it this way

Ive never considered "video games" being art. At the same time ive always had appreciation for the individual arts involved. Theres great musical arts in many games, visual arts, voice acting and various writings. It seems thoughtless to say its not art once considering it even briefly

@@brandendierker5873 I agree, and I think like any complete work which consists of many parts (like a movie or a series), the entire work should be considered art as even more of just the sum of its parts, since artistic design and thought was devoted to the work in the full context to specifically select and sometimes fully develop those different pieces to fit the design as a whole.

Better like this. The new book sucks.

DreamVikings No, your opinion does

Its not an opinion, its a fact.

DreamVikings bye troll

Why troll? Cant I have an opinion?

The Hobbit is the prologue to the Lord of the Rings series, basically. So yes, it's technically a part of the series as a whole.

Gee it's not like everybody and their mother thinks that

***** Who are you to say what he does with his time... Aren't you entitled sack of potatoes?

Ilgoth sorry if it sounds mean but I want George to finish his masterpiece instead of being the guy who almost finished it.

***** it's not like he wouldnt be working on it, but in his age, even writing and working 7 hours a day which is full work time, leaves him couple of hours per day for something else. On top, his success forces him to travel which takes time. And doing scripts for one episode per season on the tv series takes one month away. This was the reason he stopped writing for the tv, so he had more time on books. He is very busy guy. Plus his friend has said the book is prolly out Spring 2016!

Ilgoth he still had another to go. winds of winter is probably already done it just needs to be edited