Carnivals! Tattooed ladies! HBO!

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 09 Jan 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Aerten	09 Jan 2004
Well, I'm not sure if this is the appropriate board, but seeing as it's tarot "Games"... I'm wondering what you think of HBO's Tarot Carnivale game. I saw an advertisement for this on television and just had to look at it... As expected, it doesn't seem to be worth anyone's time, but I'm wondering what you all think of it. A shameless exploitation of a meaningful spiritual or psychological tool, or an innocuous game? I can't bring myself to download it, but this is what it says on the website: "A New Twist on Tarot! HBO® invites you to play FATE, a tarot card game of strategy and intuition, based on the hit series "Carnivàle." Match cards and wits against our resident Fortune Teller. If you beat her, you will learn more about your character's dark past. And as you master the game, more powerful wildcards will be added to your deck, adding consequences to every card you play. Step right up!" http://games.real.com/pgame.php?gameid=C4AC4BF8-1E3B-11B2-B996-00D0B7142009&tps=hbo1_ Just wondering your opinions.... :rolleyes:

Dark Eyes	13 Jan 2004
Hi Aerten, I have not seen this game, but I don't think I would be terribly interested in it. I am open minded about new things, but I can't imagine this game being of much benefit to anybody. I will have a look at it when I get time, then I will post my opinion. That type of thing usually doesn't take us seriously I believe, but I will reserve judgement until I have looked at it. Regards... Dark Eyes. :)

fairyhedgehog	15 Jan 2004
I've downloaded the demo and given it a go. It installs itself to your pc without asking where you want it to go on your hard drive. It installs itself using RealOne Arcade, and I'm hoping I can uninstall it using Windows installer, as there is no uninstall button that I can see. You only get a 60 minute trial but it doesn't cut you off in the middle of a game, it just won't let you restart it after 60 minutes have passed. It's a very simple card game, tarted up to look mysterious. It needs less skill than FreeCell, or the free Tarot game available on the net. The computer plays against you, using an identical set of cards to you initially. You play for mastery of 4 columns, each of which has space for two cards, one space can be used by you and one by your opponent. If you win a column, your 'fate' counter moves forward one square, and the first one to reach the end of the line wins that game. I won around a dozen games or so before getting beaten by the computer, so you can see it isn't really terribly challenging, at least in the early stages. Win three games for an extra card, which can be used to gain points in slightly different ways. This card is then also part of your 'tarot reading'. The divinatory meanings are as superficial as you might expect. The 'carnivale' atmosphere is very dark. You can play as 'Wolfboy' (a character suffering from hirsutism), Siamese (conjoined) twins, or a tatttoed lady. All the characters have suffered and as you get further into the game and win cards, you meet other unhappy characters who give you the opportunity to make choices which influence which card it is that you win. There is no animation (except for basic card movement, etc, reminiscent of FreeCell). There are no voices only text. There is no choice of Tarot deck: Rider-Waite-Smith only. No choice of levels. No two player mode. It looks to me like Shareware. It is mildly amusing, and if it was free I might use it. Heck, I might even pay £4.99 ($10 US) to register it, but not £12.99 ($20 US). I'm now going to see how easy it is to remove it from the pc.

Chronata	15 Jan 2004
I too downloaded the demo, and then had a real hard time getting rid of it! (a friend managed to get it off my hardrive, but I have no idea how he did it! Sorry Fairyhedgehog!) I am a huge fan of the HBO series, so I was a bit curious on what this was all about. Mildly entertaining, but mostly pointless. As Fairyhedgehog pointed out, it's not really that challenging, and you really don't get a great sense of the card meanings when you happen to uncover new ones. I was at least hoping to get insight into the character's backgrounds from the series, but it seems to have little to do with the actual show Carnivale. Ah well. I have this desire to go play Freecell now... :D

fairyhedgehog	16 Jan 2004
In case anyone else wants to download it and try it, you can get rid of it using Windows uninstaller. Start --> Settings --> Control Panel --> Add/Remove Programs --> RealArcade --> Add/Remove button. You can probably say 'Yes' to remove everything (I did) unless it tells you that another program needs those files. It removes Carnivale with RealArcade, and I didn't get an error message to say that there were any files it couldn't remove. By the way, what was the show 'Carnivale'? I'd never heard of it.

Chronata	16 Jan 2004
Oh fairyhedgehog! Carnivale is one of my favorite shows! Here in the states, it is on the HBO cable network. The first season just ended. The show is very dark, and takes place within a travelling sideshow during the depression. It plays with the themes of Good and Evil, Religion, Tolerance, Magic, Sex, Death, and Redemption. There is a character who reads tarot in the show, hence all the weird tarot product tie-ins. actually, the character doesn't read the cards, her Mother, who lies in a mysterious coma-like state reads the cards, and her Daughter picks up Mom's thoughts telepathically, in order to do the reading... Like I said...very dark!

fairyhedgehog	17 Jan 2004
I don't think we get it over here. Leastways, I've never seen it or seen it advertised. I'd love to be able to watch an episode to see what it's like, even though it sounds a bit dark for me.

Aerten	17 Jan 2004
:) That show seems pretty interesting, and after hearing what you've said, Chronata, maybe I'll check it out. I think we have HBO but I'm not too sure. *goes off to check TV listings*

augursWell	17 Jan 2004
The show also has an online Tarot reading at http://www.hbocarnivaletarot.com/ The art work for this online Tarot reading gives a good feel for the character of the show. I watched the full first season also. It is a dark series but is totally unique in terms of atmosphere, story, and "direction". This became a frustration with me of sorts because they never really seemed to answer any questions for the viewer. Maybe that is intentional on their part. It's like when you are watching a horror movie and you want to scream "LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!". I found myself just wanting to yell at one of the characters, "WOULD YOU JUST PLEASE EXPLAIN YOURSELF!". We'll have to see how the next season goes, I'm not sure when that starts.

The Carnivals! Tattooed ladies! HBO! thread was originally posted on 09 Jan 2004 in the Tarot Games & Fun board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Games & Fun, or read more archived threads.