Lurker > pyresword

Don't read it because spoilers but the one he just posted was a factual inaccuracy on NISA's part that is very misleading if you take it face value

(I do agree with the Angelica example not seeming like much though)

---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

People in this thread are quick to say that Biden is 2016 all over again, but is there any real reason to suggest that's a recipe for a surefire Trump win?

It's already been driven into the ground that Hilary was uniquely unpopular in ways that other candidates aren't; Trump is substantially more unpopular now than he was when he took office; and I would assume that the Democratic base is much more motivated now than they were in 2016.

---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Some day I'm going to click on one of these topics and the Trails series is going to be mentioned. I believe.

---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Also I pretty much agree with the stuff you put in spoilers which is a large part of why I don't quite rank CS3 as high as say SC and Ao. Stuff that happens in those games felt consequential to me in a way that this game doesn't quite match.

---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

If there's one difference timing-wise I'd guess it's that I almost never use the turbo or the fast-forward feature or whatever.

---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Might have more to say later but quickly: (CS3 endgame)

I'm pretty sure Millium goes along with the plan because from the beginning she intended to switch places with Altina. Lechter and Claire though, hell if I know.

As for Musse, considering she is teaming up with Vita it wouldn't surprise me at all if she knew some specifics of the Great Twilight itself already simply by asking Vita about it. That being said I don't think her "predictions" were supposed to be super specific anyways? I don't really know

---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

It adds up perfectly well to me.

Trump wants to turn the US into a sham democracy or dictatorship in which he controls everything. Conservative politicians would rather cater to him and pray that the problem goes away on its own than directly oppose him and risk alienating their base of voters.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Also I just want to say that when I saw the name "Draggy" in the poll this is the first thing I thought of

https://twitter.com/davidbhayter/status/379122279528931328?lang=en
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Having trouble deciding between Draggy, Turnip, and Mojo Jojo.

These are all fake character names that are too stupid to actually exist in the game, right? ...right?
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Honestly my favorite CS3 song is probably the title screen theme. Either that, Spiral of Erebos, or whatever the song that plays on the Raquel mountain path is.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

I definitely think the chapter 4 dungeon is longer than the final dungeon in Cold Steel 3.

I've always felt the Cold Steel games have had pretty middle-of-the-road soundtracks personally. CS3 didn't really have any standouts and there's only a couple from CS1/2 I really liked.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

SaveEstelle posted...

The heck is a hungrybox

Hungrybox is the tag/nickname of the Melee player that was featured.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

I almost never open my blinds so I don't really know the way I turn to close them...I think I keep them folded upwards by default though?
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Some of my favorites. I don't know that any of these are all that popular of choices though.

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon - Abyssal Badlands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NANkZcb2klQ

Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire - Littleroot Town
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otzTtn6l4mk

Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal - Dark Cave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXqmIkCYOSM

Pokemon Trading Card Game - Normal Duel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfDxSEc5mDw
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

LordoftheMorons posted...

In some disturbing news, 538's impeachment tracker now has impeachment just barely above water despite literally every single fact being damning for Trump. I'm guessing it's more of GOP partisans who were initially shaken finding their way back home as the Fox spin machine goes to work than the hearings actually convincing anyone that Trump is innocent, but it's still unsettling.

I was looking at this earlier today. If you look at the part where it breaks it down by party, it seems like the drop is actually primarily among Democrats and Independents, whereas the Republican response has been sitting at an extremely low but mostly stable amount.

(Compared to say, 10 days ago, Democrat and Independent support on the tracker has dropped ~3% and ~5% respectively, while Republican support is effectively the same.)
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

xp1337 posted...

pyresword posted...

Revived my playthrough of Nier: Automata from the ashes.

Man I don't like playing as 9S.

Where were you roughly again? I know you were on Route B at least because I was crushed about that

I was about halfway through route B (In the Forest Kingdom), which is still where I am because all I really did last night was a few sidequests after running around like an idiot for 15 minutes re-acquainting myself with the world and controls.

xp1337 posted...

Also got all the Vantage Master cards. Jingo may well have been the toughest opponent which I guess is fitting on a couple of levels. Her and Rutger definitely in a league of their own.

I found Ash the hardest personally. The fact that he uses all cards that can attack immediately makes it a bit tricky compared to others. On the other hand Jingo really likes wasting time using her Master's ability...which is really not that strong. Granted, I never lost a match and only drew 1 (against Ash, after a mis-click) over the course of the entire game so I don't that with that type of data set it's even possible to get a feel for who is the strongest opponent.

Also this part of the game might have been the only part I really struggled with. I assumed we'd still be fighting the dungeon boss with just the "main" party so I mostly concentrated my good stuff on them and didn't really care much about the other two. One of my other 2 groups was pretty neglected as a result and had a really tough time with the boss fight. I was able to do it but it was one of those rough battles where my party was nearly wiped multiple times and by all rights I probably shouldn't have won.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Tag

I wish I'd gone for the meme nom I was considering.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Revived my playthrough of Nier: Automata from the ashes.

Man I don't like playing as 9S.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Chihayafuru S3 is very good that is all.

Easily the strongest the show's been imo.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

I would agree that blind patriotism allowed the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, but I would not say that it caused their rise.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

I didn't especially like Egwene until a specific thing happens in the middle of the series and then after that I really liked her.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

I liked Aviendha :(

Best ones are Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne though. Siuan also great but I am not 100% sure if she makes the cut to be considered a major character? She is close.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Corrik7 posted...

Everyone should be pushed and instilled with patriotism from a very young age.

So some questions about this post from the last topic. (Note I am seeking to understand here, not to convince you of anything)

--When you say "everyone", do you mean every American or just all people in general? And then so for citizens of other countries should they be taught American patriotism because America is the best country ever, or should they be taught patriotism for their own country because countries need to have some kind of national identity? Or some other scenario I haven't thought of?

--What happens when someone moves from one country to another, say as a result of work? Should they still retain their patriotism to their country of origin even if they are not returning there in the forseeable future?
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Encouraged* patriotism is something that's appalling to me and I honestly wish this was not the norm in most countries of the world.

*I'm sure there's a better word for this but I can't think of one off the top of my head. Basically I'm trying to say that I think individuals expressing patriotism is fine, but I don't like the idea of individuals and especially institutions or governments trying to push patriotic ideals on others.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

I agree with xp but with the caveat that I don't always feel like the games themselves always treat the issue with that level of analysis and relies a bit too heavily on the player already having appropriate context.

(I suspect if I were to think about it in detail I would decide that CS1/2 not emphasizing "anti-Osborne" enough is the main source of the issue)
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

The complaint I hear regarding gender in The Wheel of Time is that the minor female characters of political importance (of which there are a fair number) often feel like copy-pastes of the same character.

I think the complaint is overblown but I do agree with it on some level. ("Copy-paste" is of course an exaggeration but there are similarities.)

The main female characters are mostly very good imo.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Mac Arrowny posted...

Good stuff so far, though it's a shame some characters (like Randy) don't really get to show their stuff

I think this is sort of a problem with the series? At this point there are so many characters that it's nearly impossible to actually provide good content for all of them. I'm not entirely sure what the solution is or if one even exists, and the content we do get is still good, so whatever.

Also I still like Ash and would probably rank him above like half of Old Class VII--I just think all the other New Class VII members have better scenes in the game.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

pyresword posted...

In the same post I pointed out that he first tried a public referendum that failed, which is really the key issue. If he'd presented his case to the people for why he wanted to get rid of term limits in a reasonable way and then allowed them to vote on it and the votes said the people agreed with him, then I wouldn't have been bothered at all. But that isn't what happened.

Legitimately curious: Do you also support Brexit, using this logic?

Edit: wrong paragraph, should've quoted the undermine the will of the people bit

It's possible depending on the details, but I suspect the answer is no.

Basically I think a referendum loses some of its legitimacy if either the government tries to deceive the people as to the consequences of the referendum or if it's about a topic so complicated that the average person has no hope of appreciating all the consequences. I suspect one or both of those are likely to apply to the Brexit situation.

Also there's been 3 years between the present and when the referendum actually happened which probably means something here. The question of whether or not to support Brexit in 2019 is not necessarily the same situation that the people voted on in 2016.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

DoomTheGyarados posted...

Alao you said Morales was horrible. big word to throw around if the elections were fine.

Trump won an election legitimately, but his attempts to undermine American democracy and centralize power around himself are enough to make me think he's horrible
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Because it is an axiom of my political philosophy that leaders should not undermine the will of the people for the leader's own benefit. I really don't know how else to say it. Any functional government needs to have checks on power and those checks can only be maintained if they are respected and upheld by those in power. (Edit: I think I've misused the word "functional" here because of course governments that aren't democratic at all can still function, but I hope the intended meaning is clear)

In the same post I pointed out that he first tried a public referendum that failed, which is really the key issue. If he'd presented his case to the people for why he wanted to get rid of term limits in a reasonable way and then allowed them to vote on it and the votes said the people agreed with him, then I wouldn't have been bothered at all. But that isn't what happened.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

I don't think the post I made is dependent at all on whether or not the election was a fair election.

I think people here generally agree that if the election was rigged then that is bad and that Morales should not be allowed to keep power in that scenario. (Note this is not a statement of support for the military to seize control of the country and establish their own leader. What should probably happen in this scenario is that another election should be held between candidates who are not Morales.)

If we assume than the election was a fair election, then probably the position I personally would take is that Morales getting term limits extended is an action that should be condemned--however he should still have been allowed to run in the election and should have been recognized as the legitimate leader if he had the votes for it despite his transparent attempts at power-grabbing.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Educating me is always an option you know!
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Mr Lasastryke posted...

"morales shouldn't rule any longer because those are the rules in bolivia."

This isn't even the argument either. It's "Morales shouldn't seek to change the rules in a way that serves to entrench himself in a position of power".

Note: If he was attempting to do this in a way that is "legitimate" in any sense I would have a lot more sympathy for his cause, but the fact that he first put this issue up to a public referendum and lost is pretty damning as I see it.

Note 2: The little I've read suggests that what he's been replaced with may in fact be worse, but that doesn't mean they can't both be terrible.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

All of them except for Alaska
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Chaos;Child was solid if you didn't play that.

Also Utawarerumono is one of my favorite series of all time though you might make the argument that's an SRPG rather than a VN.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

I would consider myself a Wheel of Time fan but I've never actually finished the series. I have tried twice and stopped in book 8 the first time and book 10 the second time. The series is great but man that middle part drags. In the grand scheme of things even those books are still relatively good I think, but books are not a medium I naturally take to and it requires a lot to keep me invested.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

I liked Elise a lot in Cold Steel 1. She hasn't been anything special in the later games but oh well.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Haste_2 posted...

Her favorite OST is Hollow Knight

They have good taste.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Hmmm favorite Branch Campus students are probably Leonora, Maya, and Valerie? On the whole I like them less than the CS1/2 students, but there's a few good ones.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

I wanna say Scorpio is the best Master Quartz in the game, but what do I know when there's so many good ones. The ones that increase your break damage are also very nice.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

how is this not an Onion article
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Aw yeah go my Fata Morgana. Think I prefer Higurashi as far as VN's go but it's definitely up there with my favorites.

Breaking Bad also pretty good, though I don't think I like it quite as much as most. Also I thought season 5 was one of the weaker ones...much prefer seasons 3 and 4 personally.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

xp1337 posted...

Altina's Chapter 4 Bond Event was really sweet

Was this the one with the camera? If so I really liked this one.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Following up on xp's CS3 chapter 3 post...

xp1337 posted...

While the Stahlritter were trading backstories... I assume the cult that Ennea was from is the DG cult but the only thing that has me questioning that is she lacks the golden eyes that the other known survivors have. They say she was an assassin though so maybe she wasn't part of the experiment groups but like the daughter of a cult member? Unless the whole assassin thing is meant to imply she's from Moonlight Horse but it would be weird for Sharon to leave that part out when she was explaining the members Ouroboros took in.

I happened today to stumble upon a post-Sen III interview with Kondo today that--among many other things--confirmed that yes Ennea was originally from the DG Cult

Not going to link the actual interview here yet because the other parts are riddled with spoilers for the final chapters of Cold Steel 3, but yeah. You can find it on Endless History if you want to seek it out.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Honestly for most of the fights that mattered (in the 2nd half of the game anyway) Altina never got a turn despite being in my main 4 >.>

I had her use the Master Quartz that revives her if she dies so that she was a failsafe in case something went wrong somehow. Than I also gave her whatever the space bell quartz was and set her up as a caster.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Musse is amazing I hate all of you.

(Altina > Juna = Musse > Rean > Kurt > Ash, for the record.)

Janus5k posted...

Favorite parts were definitely (end of Chapter 1) visiting Hamel, (end of Chapter 3) Sara's backstory/Northern Jaeger stuff and storming Juno WITH AURELIA, and the ending at least up until the point where Rean literally does the one thing they wanted to prevent, that kinda sucked.

I still don't really even know what happened in the part you're talking about at the end of the game. (Or more accurately why it happened I guess) Did he just randomly lose control of his power again like on the Northern War? Was it triggered somehow by Osborne or the Curse? Why didn't Osborne just do everything himself? Hoping they explain this in CS4 ever, assuming that I didn't miss something.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

I know it as the five-second rule but hell if I'm ever going to eat anything that's been on the floor.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

I voted Litten because Litten is the best
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

Well, the conditional I started with was that this was a problem "if it's not able to be independently verified". If the reality is that researchers provide enough the data to fully explain their methodology as well as provide their post-analysis data (or whatever relevant metrics summarize their data set as a whole--I don't know how this field works), then I would not say this is a huge problem but really it's still not ideal. Though, in that case I might say it's a problem for the research body to work out internally rather than a place for the government to step in.

I am pretty sure that in my field of study (experimental physics) if there was an instance of a research group refusing to provide raw data upon request, that they would be looked at with suspicion for the rest of their careers. Because if they aren't showing the raw data, the only thing that can really mean is that the raw data does not actually present as compelling a case as the researchers are leading you to believe. Of course, my field does not have any of these privacy issues to deal with, but my point is that sometimes I do believe there is a need for raw data to be presented in order to verify a study. Basically, I am skeptical of the long-term viability of a research field when researchers fundamentally cannot be held to that level of accountability because no one is ever able to look at the raw data obtained by any other research group.

Though, one thing I will clarify is that"raw data" means something very different in experimental physics as compared to, say, fields of social science in which the way studies typically work is by just sampling very large numbers of people and then doing basic statistical analysis of the results. If this type of climate change research operates in the latter regime than probably the status quo is fine.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever

The way I'm interpreting the analysis of this both from this topic and from the NYT article is that people think the central proposal of the bill is fundamentally bad and that the retroactive application is just the icing on the cake. If I've misunderstood then yes my post should have been worded differently.
---

Oh woops. Putting Advokaiser in my sig like this until I think of something more clever