There was one hurricane that impacted the United States, a Category 1 that struck the east coast of central Florida in early September, causing mostly minimal damage and two deaths.
Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium
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There was one hurricane that impacted the United States, a Category 1 that struck the east coast of central Florida in early September, causing mostly minimal damage and two deaths.
Summer 2006 (Part 13) - Bully Bullies The Bullies
Bully
Bully is an open world sandbox adventure game, developed by Rockstar Vancouver and published by Rockstar. Like OTL's game, Bully plays similarly to the Grand Theft Auto series, taking place in a private boarding school called Bullworth Academy and the surrounding town of Bullworth. Bully's protagonist is a boy named Jimmy Hopkins, who is fairly similar to if not virtually identical to OTL's Jimmy Hopkins, who arrives at Bullworth after being expelled from numerous other schools. His reputation as a troublemaker precedes him, and he is looked on with disdain by most of the school's students and faculty. Like OTL's game, Bully requires Jimmy to attend class, and he is punished for excessive troublemaking (attacking girls, younger students, or authority figures) by the player being forced to participate in increasingly boring "minigames" such as mowing the lawn. Bully also allows Jimmy to socialize with other students on either a friendly or an antagonistic level. TTL's Bully contains more interaction with the students and is somewhat influenced by the Syrielle games, with relationship trees and detailed interactions for a number of major characters. There's even a character inspired by the character Syrielle, in the form of a somewhat creepy and spider-obsessed girl named Sabrina that Jimmy can date. Bully includes numerous cliques that Jimmy will interact with over the course of the story, including Jocks, Preps, Nerds, and Bullies. The OTL Greasers clique has been replaced with a clique of Skaters (inspired by the OTL Thrillseekers games, though in Bully, most of the Skaters are boys). One of the biggest changes to the game from its OTL counterpart has to do with the main plot, and Jimmy's two main companions in the game. The primary antagonist remains largely the same: Gary, a manipulative sociopath who pretends to be Jimmy's friend for the first part of the game before ultimately betraying him, is very similar to the Gary that appears IOTL. However, the OTL game's Petey, who served the role of Jimmy's best friend, has been replaced by Ricky. Ricky is autistic, and his presence in the game is initially regarded with a great deal of controversy, as it was believed by many that Ricky would be used to make fun of autistic people. However, his character is portrayed extremely sympathetically and realistically. His behavior does annoy Jimmy at first, but as the game progresses, the player sees how loyal that Ricky is to Jimmy and how good of a friend he really is, and after Gary betrays Jimmy, Ricky is the only one who sticks by him. The game does poke fun at Ricky a few times, but it's keeping in tone with the game's general humor, which makes fun of pretty much everything and everyone at some point, and ultimately, Ricky is portrayed as an intelligent and helpful person and a true friend. The leader of the Nerd clique, Earnest, is also implied to have autism, but after being initially antagonistic toward Jimmy, he too becomes a loyal and helpful ally in the fight against Gary, as IOTL. Gary, meanwhile, portrays the typical attitude toward autistic people that some in society have during the time of the game's release: once he turns antagonistic against Jimmy, he sees Ricky's autism as a weakness to exploit, and part of his master plan is attempting to get Ricky to shoot up the school, which ultimately backfires because Ricky is a non-violent person who wouldn't hurt a fly (though he does eventually fight to defend someone he cares about late in the game, he does it the same way that Jimmy fights against Gary and his goons: with fists and a potato gun, not a firearm).
The plot of Bully follows a fairly similar track to that of the original game, with Jimmy entering Bullworth and finding few friends at first except for Gary and Ricky. Gary takes Jimmy on as a mentor, showing him the lay of the school and helping him out, with Ricky as sort of a tag-along who begins to idolize Jimmy, though he mostly uses Jimmy as protection against the various bullies who try to beat him up on a daily basis. After taking control of the Bullies clique by beating their leader in a one-on-one fight, Jimmy is able to explore more of the town, but this brings him up against the Skater clique. Jimmy has to learn how to perform various skateboarding tricks in order to win their respect. He eventually takes over the Skater clique, and moves on to challenging the Preppie clique for dominance. During this time, Jimmy comes to respect Ricky more, though Gary tries to subtly turn Jimmy against Ricky by implying that Ricky is crazy. After taking over the Preppies, Jimmy then challenges the Jocks, considered the kings of Bullworth. While Jimmy is dealing with the Jocks, Ricky becomes smitten with a pretty cheerleader named Zelda, who seems at first as shallow and mean as her other fellow cheerleaders, but ultimately has some hidden depths and nerdy interests. However, she doesn't fall for Ricky at first, as Ricky is too nervous to approach her or show his true self around her. Gary encourages Ricky to put up a front and impress Zelda, but Jimmy convinces Ricky to be honest with her and be himself, and he ultimately works up enough confidence to ask Zelda out on a date, which, to his surprise, he accepts. Meanwhile, Jimmy has to deal with the Nerds before he can take on the Jocks, but ultimately decides to work with the Nerds to take the Jocks down once and for all. After Jimmy defeats the Jocks, he's seemingly united the school, but as IOTL's game, Gary's machinations finally take shape and he tricks the entire school into thinking Jimmy has turned against them by pulling a series of pranks. He also wrecks Ricky's relationship with Zelda, causing her to break up with him. Jimmy gets expelled, but as he's cooling his heels in town, he meets the Townies, including a girl named Lori who has been dealing with sexual harassment by one of the teachers (she plays a similar role in TTL's game as Zoe did IOTL). Meanwhile, Ricky is trying to find a way to get back with Zelda, but ultimately with Jimmy's help he's able to get over her and move on to helping Jimmy get back into Bullworth by being a sort of "inside man", patching things up between the cliques while Jimmy is performing missions in town. Eventually though, Gary sets his master plan into motion just as Jimmy is able to unite the Townies and win back the respect of the Bullworth cliques. While Ricky is celebrating the fact that he got the cliques to trust Jimmy again, Zelda calls him, realizing (with the help of some of the female friends Jimmy made during the game) that Ricky didn't do anything wrong and that it was Gary the whole time. She asks Ricky to meet her, but before the meeting takes place, Gary kidnaps her and sets up a prank to make it look like she stood Ricky up. Gary also starts a riot at the school and kidnaps the headmaster (as IOTL). The final mission thus has two components: first, Jimmy has to help Ricky (who never falls for Gary's attempt to make him think he was stood up) rescue Zelda, and then to find Gary and save the school. Though Jimmy does get Ricky most of the way there, it's ultimately Ricky who fights off one of Gary's psychotic lieutenants and saves Zelda. Then Jimmy goes after Gary, with the help of Lori and all the leaders of the cliques he met along the way. Depending on who Jimmy befriended or dated throughout the game, he may get more help on this final mission (for example, Sabrina unleashes a bunch of spiders from the school's biology lab to bite and scare some of the jocks Gary's recruited). Finally, Jimmy confronts Gary on the roof of the school, and it goes pretty much the same way as it does OTL, though Gary's taunts toward Jimmy and his mother are also interspersed with comments about how "Ricky's totally gonna sperg out" and "I bet he's shot up half the school by now!" prompting Jimmy (between punches aimed at Gary's face and body) to passionately defend his friend and all autistic people in general, with replies like "Yeah, Ricky might be a little weird, but you know what? So am I, and so is everybody at this school! We're all a bunch of messed up misfits, but there's nothing wrong with that! Nobody deserves to be treated badly, unless they're a dick like you!" Eventually, Jimmy beats Gary and sends him crashing through the glass roof of the school, where he's promptly knocked out by Jimmy and then expelled by the headmaster after Jimmy frees him. Jimmy's let back in, the school is saved, the cliques are united, and Jimmy/Lori and Ricky/Zelda get together.
Bully is released for the Nintendo Wave and the Microsoft Xbox on September 12, 2006. It would later be given an enhanced port for the Xbox 2 in 2007 called Bully: Scholarship Edition, similar to OTL. The game is universally praised at the time of its release, even moreso than OTL's game. The gameplay and storyline receive especially high praise, with the portrayal of Ricky drawing particular praise from critics, most of whom believed that the character would be the subject of ridicule prior to the game's release. Autism advocacy organizations also praise the game, though a few still criticize it for some of its violent behavior and juvenile humor, even if they are still pleasantly surprised by the sympathetic portrayal of Ricky. One reviewer states that "Five years after the Midlothian Massacre, this is the video game we desperately needed and never in our wildest dreams thought we would get, especially this soon." As IOTL, Jack Thompson, still furious about his loss in the Supreme Court and in the civil arena, heavily criticizes the game and attempts to get it banned and pulled from stores, ironically using the autism controversy as his main criticism. Stating that "this game will dramatically increase bullying of autistic people", Rockstar invites Jack Thompson to play part of the game and watch some of the scenes showing Ricky in a positive light. Though it's reported by one person who was there that "Jack Thompson's mouth literally dropped open when we showed him one of the scenes where Jimmy gives Ricky advice and acts like a true friend to him", Thompson still comes away from the meeting attempting to get the game banned and blatantly lying about the content he saw. Bully would be highly successful financially, not to the degree of the Grand Theft Auto games but probably moreso than IOTL. While there is still a great deal of discrimination against autistic people that would unfortunately continue, the game's release does start a conversation, and it is noted that there is a very slight positive bump in public perception of people with autism after the game's release, with a slightly bigger bump noted in the gaming community.
Bully is an open world sandbox adventure game, developed by Rockstar Vancouver and published by Rockstar. Like OTL's game, Bully plays similarly to the Grand Theft Auto series, taking place in a private boarding school called Bullworth Academy and the surrounding town of Bullworth. Bully's protagonist is a boy named Jimmy Hopkins, who is fairly similar to if not virtually identical to OTL's Jimmy Hopkins, who arrives at Bullworth after being expelled from numerous other schools. His reputation as a troublemaker precedes him, and he is looked on with disdain by most of the school's students and faculty. Like OTL's game, Bully requires Jimmy to attend class, and he is punished for excessive troublemaking (attacking girls, younger students, or authority figures) by the player being forced to participate in increasingly boring "minigames" such as mowing the lawn. Bully also allows Jimmy to socialize with other students on either a friendly or an antagonistic level. TTL's Bully contains more interaction with the students and is somewhat influenced by the Syrielle games, with relationship trees and detailed interactions for a number of major characters. There's even a character inspired by the character Syrielle, in the form of a somewhat creepy and spider-obsessed girl named Sabrina that Jimmy can date. Bully includes numerous cliques that Jimmy will interact with over the course of the story, including Jocks, Preps, Nerds, and Bullies. The OTL Greasers clique has been replaced with a clique of Skaters (inspired by the OTL Thrillseekers games, though in Bully, most of the Skaters are boys). One of the biggest changes to the game from its OTL counterpart has to do with the main plot, and Jimmy's two main companions in the game. The primary antagonist remains largely the same: Gary, a manipulative sociopath who pretends to be Jimmy's friend for the first part of the game before ultimately betraying him, is very similar to the Gary that appears IOTL. However, the OTL game's Petey, who served the role of Jimmy's best friend, has been replaced by Ricky. Ricky is autistic, and his presence in the game is initially regarded with a great deal of controversy, as it was believed by many that Ricky would be used to make fun of autistic people. However, his character is portrayed extremely sympathetically and realistically. His behavior does annoy Jimmy at first, but as the game progresses, the player sees how loyal that Ricky is to Jimmy and how good of a friend he really is, and after Gary betrays Jimmy, Ricky is the only one who sticks by him. The game does poke fun at Ricky a few times, but it's keeping in tone with the game's general humor, which makes fun of pretty much everything and everyone at some point, and ultimately, Ricky is portrayed as an intelligent and helpful person and a true friend. The leader of the Nerd clique, Earnest, is also implied to have autism, but after being initially antagonistic toward Jimmy, he too becomes a loyal and helpful ally in the fight against Gary, as IOTL. Gary, meanwhile, portrays the typical attitude toward autistic people that some in society have during the time of the game's release: once he turns antagonistic against Jimmy, he sees Ricky's autism as a weakness to exploit, and part of his master plan is attempting to get Ricky to shoot up the school, which ultimately backfires because Ricky is a non-violent person who wouldn't hurt a fly (though he does eventually fight to defend someone he cares about late in the game, he does it the same way that Jimmy fights against Gary and his goons: with fists and a potato gun, not a firearm).
The plot of Bully follows a fairly similar track to that of the original game, with Jimmy entering Bullworth and finding few friends at first except for Gary and Ricky. Gary takes Jimmy on as a mentor, showing him the lay of the school and helping him out, with Ricky as sort of a tag-along who begins to idolize Jimmy, though he mostly uses Jimmy as protection against the various bullies who try to beat him up on a daily basis. After taking control of the Bullies clique by beating their leader in a one-on-one fight, Jimmy is able to explore more of the town, but this brings him up against the Skater clique. Jimmy has to learn how to perform various skateboarding tricks in order to win their respect. He eventually takes over the Skater clique, and moves on to challenging the Preppie clique for dominance. During this time, Jimmy comes to respect Ricky more, though Gary tries to subtly turn Jimmy against Ricky by implying that Ricky is crazy. After taking over the Preppies, Jimmy then challenges the Jocks, considered the kings of Bullworth. While Jimmy is dealing with the Jocks, Ricky becomes smitten with a pretty cheerleader named Zelda, who seems at first as shallow and mean as her other fellow cheerleaders, but ultimately has some hidden depths and nerdy interests. However, she doesn't fall for Ricky at first, as Ricky is too nervous to approach her or show his true self around her. Gary encourages Ricky to put up a front and impress Zelda, but Jimmy convinces Ricky to be honest with her and be himself, and he ultimately works up enough confidence to ask Zelda out on a date, which, to his surprise, he accepts. Meanwhile, Jimmy has to deal with the Nerds before he can take on the Jocks, but ultimately decides to work with the Nerds to take the Jocks down once and for all. After Jimmy defeats the Jocks, he's seemingly united the school, but as IOTL's game, Gary's machinations finally take shape and he tricks the entire school into thinking Jimmy has turned against them by pulling a series of pranks. He also wrecks Ricky's relationship with Zelda, causing her to break up with him. Jimmy gets expelled, but as he's cooling his heels in town, he meets the Townies, including a girl named Lori who has been dealing with sexual harassment by one of the teachers (she plays a similar role in TTL's game as Zoe did IOTL). Meanwhile, Ricky is trying to find a way to get back with Zelda, but ultimately with Jimmy's help he's able to get over her and move on to helping Jimmy get back into Bullworth by being a sort of "inside man", patching things up between the cliques while Jimmy is performing missions in town. Eventually though, Gary sets his master plan into motion just as Jimmy is able to unite the Townies and win back the respect of the Bullworth cliques. While Ricky is celebrating the fact that he got the cliques to trust Jimmy again, Zelda calls him, realizing (with the help of some of the female friends Jimmy made during the game) that Ricky didn't do anything wrong and that it was Gary the whole time. She asks Ricky to meet her, but before the meeting takes place, Gary kidnaps her and sets up a prank to make it look like she stood Ricky up. Gary also starts a riot at the school and kidnaps the headmaster (as IOTL). The final mission thus has two components: first, Jimmy has to help Ricky (who never falls for Gary's attempt to make him think he was stood up) rescue Zelda, and then to find Gary and save the school. Though Jimmy does get Ricky most of the way there, it's ultimately Ricky who fights off one of Gary's psychotic lieutenants and saves Zelda. Then Jimmy goes after Gary, with the help of Lori and all the leaders of the cliques he met along the way. Depending on who Jimmy befriended or dated throughout the game, he may get more help on this final mission (for example, Sabrina unleashes a bunch of spiders from the school's biology lab to bite and scare some of the jocks Gary's recruited). Finally, Jimmy confronts Gary on the roof of the school, and it goes pretty much the same way as it does OTL, though Gary's taunts toward Jimmy and his mother are also interspersed with comments about how "Ricky's totally gonna sperg out" and "I bet he's shot up half the school by now!" prompting Jimmy (between punches aimed at Gary's face and body) to passionately defend his friend and all autistic people in general, with replies like "Yeah, Ricky might be a little weird, but you know what? So am I, and so is everybody at this school! We're all a bunch of messed up misfits, but there's nothing wrong with that! Nobody deserves to be treated badly, unless they're a dick like you!" Eventually, Jimmy beats Gary and sends him crashing through the glass roof of the school, where he's promptly knocked out by Jimmy and then expelled by the headmaster after Jimmy frees him. Jimmy's let back in, the school is saved, the cliques are united, and Jimmy/Lori and Ricky/Zelda get together.
Bully is released for the Nintendo Wave and the Microsoft Xbox on September 12, 2006. It would later be given an enhanced port for the Xbox 2 in 2007 called Bully: Scholarship Edition, similar to OTL. The game is universally praised at the time of its release, even moreso than OTL's game. The gameplay and storyline receive especially high praise, with the portrayal of Ricky drawing particular praise from critics, most of whom believed that the character would be the subject of ridicule prior to the game's release. Autism advocacy organizations also praise the game, though a few still criticize it for some of its violent behavior and juvenile humor, even if they are still pleasantly surprised by the sympathetic portrayal of Ricky. One reviewer states that "Five years after the Midlothian Massacre, this is the video game we desperately needed and never in our wildest dreams thought we would get, especially this soon." As IOTL, Jack Thompson, still furious about his loss in the Supreme Court and in the civil arena, heavily criticizes the game and attempts to get it banned and pulled from stores, ironically using the autism controversy as his main criticism. Stating that "this game will dramatically increase bullying of autistic people", Rockstar invites Jack Thompson to play part of the game and watch some of the scenes showing Ricky in a positive light. Though it's reported by one person who was there that "Jack Thompson's mouth literally dropped open when we showed him one of the scenes where Jimmy gives Ricky advice and acts like a true friend to him", Thompson still comes away from the meeting attempting to get the game banned and blatantly lying about the content he saw. Bully would be highly successful financially, not to the degree of the Grand Theft Auto games but probably moreso than IOTL. While there is still a great deal of discrimination against autistic people that would unfortunately continue, the game's release does start a conversation, and it is noted that there is a very slight positive bump in public perception of people with autism after the game's release, with a slightly bigger bump noted in the gaming community.
And now i wait for the next update for the news for when jackie boy gets his license revoked.
I have to find the right gif to post when it happens, though.
FINALLY! I’VE CAUGHT UP WITH IT! HALLELUJAH!
In all seriousness, this is one hell of a timeline! GameTV, a living Selina, Apple vs Microsoft vs Nitendo, and so much more! I’ve enjoyed this and how it makes OTL look like the 70s! Please continue with such superb work! Thank you.
In all seriousness, this is one hell of a timeline! GameTV, a living Selina, Apple vs Microsoft vs Nitendo, and so much more! I’ve enjoyed this and how it makes OTL look like the 70s! Please continue with such superb work! Thank you.
Im I the only one who cares about the gaming segments here?
Ive noticed the pop culture ones get more replies.
Ive noticed the pop culture ones get more replies.
I care about both tbh.
Also (on topic) I really enjoyed the bully update! I liked the changes that came about due to ITL stuff. Hope it gets a sequel of some kind at some point.
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I have been silent for the last three weeks, but I believe that it is time to just say it: I'm taking my leave of the board. It remains to be seen if it will be permanent or just temporary, but I need to get away and move forward with other projects for the time being. Ry and Nivek are aware of my decision and as for my reasons as to why it came to this, I would rather keep it the matter private and make my exit as graceful as it could be. The fire I once had for contributing to the genre has died down to a pile of ember and ash. There was so much I wanted to do for this timeline and its cinematic universes, but suffice it to say that the drive is no longer there and I wish to apologize for leaving the audience hanging. However, there is still one contribution I would like to make before I depart. It is still a ways off, but I figure it would be a fitting swan song.
That being said I would like to thank the audience for the encouragement and praise. It was fun while it lasted and perhaps I will return. So until then, best of luck to Ry, Nivek, and the other contributors and a fond farewell to the rest of you.
That being said I would like to thank the audience for the encouragement and praise. It was fun while it lasted and perhaps I will return. So until then, best of luck to Ry, Nivek, and the other contributors and a fond farewell to the rest of you.
Goodluck with your futures endeavour,take this sabbathical to think what you think about alternate history and other passions..
I always loved your updates and am sad to see them go. But I understand that everything has its time and that sometimes you just gotta move on. Best of luck in your future endeavours.
It's understandable. After all, even while cooperations are good, sometimes you might need a break to pursue your own plans. I hope you finish all your projects and be able to achieve what you want by your imagination.
That one's good too!
Aww, bye Pyro. I'm sad to see you go, but I wish you the best!
I always loved your updates!
An interesting set of updates, particularly about the butterflies affecting the wider world (the Democrats are so screwed in 2006). Michael Jackson's legacy will be interesting. On the one hand, the guilty verdict ITTL (which I strongly suspect is a miscarriage of justice) is going to be a major dampener but on the other hand he may be exonerated at a latter date.
On a slightly happier note, have you had any thoughts about Robots Wars/Battlebots/Robotica?
teg
On a slightly happier note, have you had any thoughts about Robots Wars/Battlebots/Robotica?
teg
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