Lurker > ParanoidObsessive

No, and no.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Lightning Bolt posted...

And yeah, new isn't always good in politics, just "art", if you'll let me get all pretentious for a second.

New things can just as easily be terrible in "art" as well, though.

And that's not even getting into a long, philosophical discussion about what "art" is in the first place, and if we even really HAVE "art" in the modern era when most artistic endeavor is powered more by financial gain or for entertainment purposes, which have their own aesthetic requirements.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Lightning Bolt posted...

Depends on what you want. I want new ideas to play with and innovations to add to my repertoire, but I don't exceptionally care about the creators staying in business. New obviously wouldn't always be a plus to them, and I can respect that, but I still think it's a plus to me.

It's less of an issue when you're talking about RPGs, per se (mainly because, again, the average player can buy a couple of core rulebooks and spend the next 50+ years playing that same system without ever buying another book again, so you don't NEED a company to continue succeeding), but it's still a major problem on some level.

To wit, the moment 5e became D&D's "mainstream success" edition - which has also become the cornerstone to most popular streams or online games - it became the entry-point for most new gamers, and the standard by which they're going to continue to judge the system for the rest of their lives. While some rare few may eventually look back to previous editions and decide they like 4e or 3e or 3.5e or Pathfinder or even BECMI better, the vast majority never will.

And if you're a fan of an older edition, and dislike the "innovations" of newer systems (like, for instance, the mass dislike for 4e that many older gamers felt due to the perception that it radically altered most of the core elements and feel of the game), you can easily be "cut off" from new players, as your favored edition slowly withers and dies. Someone who loves AD&D 2e is going to have a much harder time finding players for their games than someone who wants to run a 5e game. In that sense, constant "innovation" as a core ideal (as opposed to simply releasing optional alternate rules or alternate systems/settings) can absolutely become a detriment in and of itself, even before you consider the value of individual innovations.

New ideas aren't in and of themselves automatically GOOD ideas. And a proliferation of bad ideas (or even just a moderate accumulation of bad ideas in ways that are extremely significant) can easily render a system unplayable, or at least unpleasant to people who prefer playing in a previously established way. Or at the very least, make it less worthwhile than other alternatives, rendering it a mostly shunned/ignored edition/system.

In that sense, it's not an issue of whether or not the business remains in business, it's an issue of whether or not you can even continue to play the game.

If anything, the desire for a business to continue existing helps FUEL innovation for the sake of innovation. Innovation solely for the sake of "art", or function, or quality, can often be detrimental to continued business. Because you need to keep churning out new content (even if it isn't really necessary, or you weren't even remotely inspired to produce something better than what you already had) in order to keep harvesting dollars.

Obviously, this isn't really much of an issue if you're playing a mostly homebrewed patchwork system and have enough players to support such a game long-term, but people like that rarely need new "official release" systems to provide new ideas anyway - there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of competing systems already out in the world, and people willing to patch in ideas from multiple editions are usually just as likely (if not more so) to just homebrew their own system entirely from scratch anyway (and potentially eventually publish it).


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

But they won't do that, because at the moment Brock is still a proven mega-draw while Braun is not.

Also, Brock mostly avoids the traditional 50-50 booking problem because Heyman is his RL advocate and can often overrule what he sees as terrible booking decisions (which he's done multiple times, which is part of why Brock/Heyman have a bit of heat in the locker room). But Braun is still a relatively young, relatively powerless wrestler who is going to do exactly what he's told.

Again, stop thinking about what is logical for them to do, because they rarely do that these days. Especially not in scenarios where Vince is calling the shots rather than Triple H (who is still kind of annoyed that Vince keeps pissing away most of his NXT talent once it hits the main roster).


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Lightning Bolt posted...

I hope so. Maybe they'll try something new, which is always a plus.

As I've said many, many times (usually in regards to politics, at least on this board), "new" isn't ALWAYS a plus. "Innovation" isn't always a net positive. And change solely for the sake of change can easily be a catastrophic negative.

Or to put it another way, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if it IS broke, make sure you know what the fuck you're doing before you try to fix it."

If anything, at least 80% of Nintendo's peripheral history is a pretty clear example of coming up with new ideas backfiring more often than not. And if, say, they'd gone out of their way to do things like canceling support for the Game Boy to push the Virtual Boy, they wouldn't still be in business right now. For every Wii, they've had a Wii-U.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Zeus posted...

Yeah, but that was later on AFTER Show had been built up to have some credibility. Before he was almost-jobbing to Rey Mysterio, he was beating Hulk Hogan for titles (granted, it happened at another promotion but those victories carried over with his reputation therefore making his losses more meaningful).

Yes, as "The Giant" in WCW he was pushed hard early (at least until the NWO came along and pretty much everyone else got shit-booked), but he was de-pushed almost immediately because WWE management really didn't like his attitude (which is why he was sent down to developmental).

His time in the 'Fed (which really isn't "the Fed" anymore, but fuck it) was mostly a lot of underwhelming feuds (remember when he was fighting the Big Boss Man 10 years after anyone cared about the Big Boss Man?) and so-so pushes (remember when he got over by mimicking other wrestlers' gimmicks and making movie references?). Even when he was ostensibly a top-tier wrestler very few people ever saw him as one, and his constant weight issues meant he would occasionally get de-pushed for a while, which kind of killed his heat.

He's one of those wrestlers they occasionally sort of half-heartedly give a push to, then back off of once the audience reacts luke-warmly, which mostly only happens because an endless string of jobs has convinced the savvier audience that this person is a "loser" so they don't buy into their sudden revitalization.

And again, I LIKE Big Show. I feel like they mistreated him badly over his time in the company. But he's hardly the only victim of that *cough*Goldust*cough*.

I do agree that Braun SHOULD get the belt, but we're also talking about a company that is still convinced that Roman Reigns will get over if they just keep rubbing him in our faces until we love him. After 3+ years of that strategy absolutely failing to work. They are absolutely going to job him to Brock, so they can job Brock to Roman. Then, when that doesn't work, they'll ruin another wrestler the audience loves in yet another attempt to "coronate" Roman for the 47th time.

In the WWE as it currently exists, it seems like most of the Vince-inspired booking (ie, Raw as a whole and Jinder on Smackdown) has an air of clueless defiance about it. Expecting logic or sanity from the bookers at this point is a losing bet.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

To be fair, once you manage to "perfect" a system, updates and new revised editions are honestly kind of a negative anyway. Especially if you're trying to "fix" something that isn't broken (see also, the New World of Darkness, a lot of people's opinions of 4e D&D, etc).

That being said, I have no real opinion on the quality of C&C because I've never played it. But having nearly 20 years of products being perfectly compatible with the rule set you buy today is a nice plus (as opposed to people constantly having to update or convert older D&D books or adventures to modern rules, because you're dealing with a half-dozen different conflicting systems), especially when it means your players won't immediately devolve into edition wars before a game, arguing over which version they'd prefer to play.

The real motivation behind most reworks and updates of systems isn't to make a better version of the system anyway, as much as it is to sell all new copies of the same old books to your older hardcore audience. Once a player owns the core rulebooks, they're no longer a source of income for you unless you keep putting out dozens (or hundreds) of splatbooks, "expanded/advanced systems", and "rules clarification" type books. But doing so tends to overcomplicate the game to the point where new players start being discouraged from playing, at which point you pare it all back, release a new edition, and start the entire cycle over again.

In D&D's case, the only real reason they came out with AD&D and 2e was to screw Gary Gygax out of money, and the reason they came out with 3e was because 2e had grown into a bloated confusing mess (and to push the d20 idea, in an attempt to grab control of the marketplace and public awareness back from White Wolf). 4e in turn was at least partly due to the fact that 3e and 3.5 had similarly grown bloated (especially once you factored in third party support books), but also as an attempt to claw at least a few new players out of the MMO market.

5e seems to be aiming at trying to maintain a balance between being simple enough to appeal to new players while referencing enough older material to appeal to oldschool gamers, and has been doing a good job of avoiding bloat, but WotC will almost certainly come out with a 6e version of the game eventually, because you can only drip-feed out so many setting books and adventure scenarios before people stop buying new books.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Zeus posted...

In general, I'm pretty sure they need to protect Braun to some extent because they likely want to use him as a Big Show replacement since Show is looking to retire in the next few years.

If they want to use him as Big Show 2.0, they wouldn't NEED to protect him, considering they basically shit on Big Show for about 90% of his career.

I LIKE Big Show, but let's be honest, he's Jobby McJobberson.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Zeus posted...

Should also mention that I listened to a 30-35 minute Dave Meltzer (with Bryan Alvarez?) clip from a podcast discussing the last (or next to last) Raw despite having not watched a Raw in ages.

That's basically what I do. I watch a couple of different YouTube channels that talk about wrestling, so I know what's going on on Raw and SmackDown, and I watch the PPVs with a friend of mine, but I probably haven't watched an actual episode of either Raw or SmackDown in like 15 years.

It works better that way, because you get to hear most of the backstage drama (which is honestly more interesting than the majority of in-ring angles at this point) and most of the actual strong matches without having to sit through all of the dreck.



Zeus posted...

Granted, the fact that they're building up Braun really makes me want to get back into watching Raw...

Brawn is awesome, but you might be better off not getting invested, because you'll only be disappointed when they feed him to Brock and/or Roman.



Zeus posted...

but it's fucking 3 hours long and Hulu has too many commercials.

WWE itself posts most of the actual worthwhile highlights on their own YouTube channel, and will recycle all of it into the video packages for the PPVs.

And if you don't want to pay for the network, and you're willing to go looking, you can usually find someone live-streaming the PPVs on YouTube if you look hard enough.

Though if you're an older wrestling fan, the mass of past content on the network might be enough to help justify the monthly price tag for you, regardless of what you might think of the current product. Especially since they have the tape libraries from WCW and ECW as well as WWE/WWF.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

66°F in summer, 68°F or so in winter.

Fuck the heat.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Zeus posted...

Should have just closed the topic after you were informed nobody cares.

No no - this topic is serving a valuable public service.

By remaining open, it managed to get bumped back to the front page while I was looking, so I could see it, and now I know that Balor has another account I need to block/ignore.

Thus, this topic actually has more positive value than about half the topics on PotD these days!


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

I like autosave as an emergency backup, but dislike it when it's the only option because the game is trying to prevent you from save scumming.

Save anywhere, anywhen, with no penalties is best, especially with the average age of gamers aging into the 30s at this point - adults with adult lives and adult responsibilities tend to need to be able to save at a moment's notice because you never really know when you're going to have to rush off for some reason, and having to backtrack 20+ minutes of play because of a shitty autosave can make the difference between continuing play or losing all interest in that game and never playing it again out of pissed off annoyance.

As much as a certain (repugnant) sub-class of gamers feel like any concession towards "casual play" is somehow an unforgivable sin, games in general SHOULD allow players to play at their own level and enjoy at their own pace, rather than acting like a forced babysitter who won't "allow" a player to save because they don't "deserve" it yet.

That goes hand-in-hand with having multiple save files, though (which is another reason why I dislike autosave-only games). Because if losing 20+ minutes of progress to a lack of saves is frustratingly annoying, potentially having to start your whole game over because you saved in a game-breaking location is an abomination.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

The Wave Master posted...

Are any of you geeks playing Destiny 2? If so is it better than Destiny vanilla? I'm thinking it's just marginally better than the first. Which means it's not woeth owning or investing hundreds of hours into the game.

I was already biased against it because of the massive clusterfuck and MMOishness of the first game, but then they brought in the microtransaction fiasco this time around and now I generally feel like Bungie and Activision can go fuck themselves in the ass with a rusty pitchfork.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

As far as I'm concerned, it ended 15 years ago.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Blightzkrieg posted...

Did PO used to be better or is that nostalgia

He used to be way better, before he burned out and started spending most of his time in the Geek topics.

It's been years since there's been a genuine Wall o' Text or POwning around these parts!

And he hasn't even bothered to make a single topic in like 10 years now. Not that anyone remembers anymore, but he used to make at least a couple every few months or so.



green dragon posted...

Is being here longer than other people really something to be proud of?

Proud? No.

But that still doesn't really change the odd and unsettling sensation you feel when people start talking about shit that happened in 2011 or so as being "old", when to you it feels like it happened yesterday, and the actual "old" stuff happened back somewhere around 2004-2006 or so. Or when people treat things that happened in 2011 as the nostalgic "good old days", in spite of the fact that the really old posters feel like the board had already long since descended into mediocrity by that point.

It's like the cold, crushing sensation you feel when you realize that people getting their driver's licenses this year weren't born yet when you graduated college. Or that you're actually old enough to be the secret illegitimate parent of at least a few PotDers.

You'll understand when you're older.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Mario_VS_DK posted...

In Pathfinder, components are pretty simple to deal with. You just have a spell component pouch that is assumed to have any component or focus without a written value, and you are assumed to stock it back up whenever you're in town.

It's the same in 5e. Basically, you can use a component pouch in the same way you use a focus - ie, substitute it for any material component that doesn't have a cost.

What I'm basically asking is if anyone ever uses a more active material component system, assuming that players don't bypass it entirely by using foci or pouches that way. Or if literally everyone bypasses it via the provided workarounds. Or just ignores it entirely.



Lightning Bolt posted...

Materials are basically the "Arcane Focus". Instead of a symbol of god, it's a bag.

Well, no. The Arcane Focus for an arcane spellcaster is literally an Arcane Focus (or more broadly, a Spellcasting Focus, with Arcane Focus being more specifically for Wizard and the like, with Druid Focus as a separate category of Spellcasting Focus that works for Druids).

Materials are a separate system which, as-written, can be replaced by a focus which is analogous to a holy symbol.

It might sound like semantics, but there IS a separate step in there, which is sort of at the root of the question I'm asking.

Though the fact that every answer to the question so far seems to miss that might in and of itself be the answer to the question.



Lightning Bolt posted...

and inventory management in general is very "solo play" which I don't like to encourage

In a similar vein, I'm also not a fan of Encumbrance rules - but that's an entirely different discussion.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Yellow posted...

because the world is hotter than ever before.

Not even close.



dragon504 posted...

It's not like this is the first time she's been an idiot.

It would arguably be harder to think of times when she WASN'T an idiot than it would be to think of all the times she was.

There's also the theory that half her appeal is that she plays herself off as being more clumsy and stupid than she actually is because it makes her seem more relateable to audiences, which in turn is at the core of a lot of her popularity. So it's entirely possible we're all being played.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Oh, and here's something else I've been considering:

Material Components - does anyone actually like/use them as a mechanic?

I know they've been a thing since pretty much forever, but I've always loathed them as a concept (even in other systems, like Warhammer), and I've noticed that almost none of the more casual D&D games I watch use them at all (except to occasionally mention someone spreading flower petals or whatever as flavor-fluff that is never brought up again, and no one ever has to buy or harvest components as they travel).

So I was wondering if people here are more inclined to actually use them as presented, forcing players to constantly restock supplies or be unable to cast spells, or if pretty much everyone other than the hardest of hardcore grognards brush off the mechanic entirely and straight up ignore it.

And on a more or less related note:

Spellcasting Focus - 5e rules allow a spellcaster to substitute a "Spellcasting Focus" instead of using material components in a spell, which is sort of like how a clerical holy symbol works mechanically, except for arcane casters instead. They list stuff like crystal balls, orbs, rods, staves, etc. as recommended focuses (foci), with Druids having their own separate list (of stuff like mistletoe, sickles, etc). It's seemingly presented as being entirely optional, though, and it seems like it would be completely unnecessary in a game where a DM didn't require material components. Indeed, in much the same way none of the spellcasters in the various podcast games I watch ever use material components, none of them seem to use foci either.

I do remember this specifically being more of a required thing in 4e (at least, I remember giving my Sorcerer runic daggers and my Warlock had a staff because of it, and I don't remember it being optional), but in the same vein, I don't remember Perkins ever really requiring it in the 4e Acq Inc games (though Jim's obsession with wands more or less fills that niche anyway - and ironically, his tendency to treat them like holstered guns actually echoes one of the earliest D&D characters in Gygax's home campaign, who was more or less a Wild West gunslinger-type mage).

So, does anyone here use/require foci in games? Or is that something else that most groups simply ignore as being too cumbersome/restrictive?


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

shadowsword87 posted...

Oh please, RPG-related stuff is just half of what I listen to!

Yeah, but my point was that, if I was starting to feel bad about listening to too much D&D/RP, then the fact that you're clearly listening to way more WOULD make me feel better.

As for it only being half of what you listen to, I probably listen to/watch more wrestling and video game stuff per week than I do RPG (my main channels are basically everything Rooster Teeth, Outside Xbox, Playstation Access, WhatCulture, WhatCulture Gaming, WhatCulture Wrestling, WrestleTalk, and Wrestling with Wregret, plus PreRec and RedLetterMedia when they come out with stuff, and I generally try to keep up with most new videos for each channel). But YouTube has pretty much become TV for me at this point.

Plus most of the time I'm listening to RP stuff is usually in tandem with playing Minecraft, where like I said in the Geek topic, I'm basically covering an entire world in cobblestone (about 750,000 blocks) - in Survival Mode - because I am a sick person. Made sicker because, since the last time I mentioned it, I decided to box in the sides as well (which is going to take another 500,000 blocks or so).


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

MasterGakke posted...

Both are sides. If you have them both together and nothing else, then they're the main course.

I'd argue this. It's why you order bacon AND eggs, not eggs with bacon or bacon with eggs.

There is no universal principle that something is a side and must always be so. Presentation plays a role in whether or not something is a side or a main (or an appetizer, or a desert, etc).

As some people have mentioned toast, I'd say the same applies there. Someone can easily eat toast as their main (or only) meal, especially if they eat it with butter/jam/cinnamon and sugar/etc, or toast can be a side to a more substantial meal. Toast doesn't have an inherent objective trait automatically making it one or the other universally.



KStateKing17 posted...

Eggs can be served as a main course (omelets). Bacon is always served as a side.

Yes, but if you're ignoring the presentation of the eggs to lump all egg dishes into the same classification (ie, there's no difference between omelets, scrambled eggs, or "sunny side up"), then in the same sense bacon is merely pork, and pork CAN be a main dish in multiple ways (whether ham or pork chops or whathaveyou).

And honestly, the idea that bacon = side is more of a modern trend anyway (just like the idea that bacon = breakfast is very much a modern idea).



darcandkharg31 posted...

Eggs are the meal, bacon is extra, you don't order bacon and hashbrowns, well you could, but you generally don't.

I've eaten both bacon and hashbrowns as my meal at least a few times. Then again, I never eat eggs period (except as part of other recipes, like in baking or breading, or making french toast).


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

ITT I will likely shake my head in disgust at what current users consider to be "old".


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Considering physical bundles have led me to play games I would otherwise never have played (like Jet Set Radio Future), whereas the only digital bundle I've ever bought led me to not even bother downloading the game (I still have the unused activation code for Last of Us on the PS4 around somewhere), and my usual biases against digital media versus physical, I'm going to vote physical.



NightMareBunny posted...

as digital seems to take up more space than the physical version and considering how much space is devoured by the system's standard OS that's giving you even less space right from the get go

I fucking loathe the new console trend of forced installs to a hard-drive of moderate size, to the point where you can basically only keep 6-12 games or so "active", and wind up having to delete old games entirely (and then reinstall them if you want to play them again later). It's one of the (many) reasons why I hate that consoles are so desperately trying to be PCs, and adopting most of the worst aspects of PCs while failing to bring in enough advantages to compensate.

I already hate PC gaming in general, and the fact that console manufactures seem determined to make me hate consoles for all the same reasons might be what will ultimately drive me out of gaming entirely.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Well, if it was, I would certainly feel better now!

But yeah, I was mostly just interested in the D&D podcasts, because it seems like that's what most of the actual likeable personalities with a view towards "game-as-entertainment" seem to play, as opposed to people who are either less likeable/more grating or who are clearly treating it more as just a documenting of their normal playstyle.

I couldn't even get into Foreververse when they were doing their 7th Sea run in spite of liking that system. And I've never been able to get into Heroes and Halfwits in spite of liking all of the Rooster Teeth guys because their DM irritates me (and I don't watch Twits and Crits because it's behind the paywall).

At this point, I'm mostly just watching the Acq Inc. stuff, Critical Role, Dice Camera Action (which I just finished binging to catch up on, mainly because of Perkins being the DM and because of the Holly Conrad/Strix guest appearance in the main Acq Inc game), and I've just started slogging through the Yogscast crew game (partly because I liked their guest appearances on DCA, and partly from watching them play on the Stream of Annihilation).

I suppose I technically also watch Force Grey, but that's less of a show and more of a mini-series sort of deal.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

I remember as a child, I once shoved Cocoa Puffs up my nose for some reason.

My mother panicked, having no idea what to do or how to get them out.

My grandfather basically just grabbed my nose, squeezed it really hard and crunched them up, then made me keep blowing my nose until it stopped coming out chocolate.

These are the travails of larval humans.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

BTB posted...

Nah, I just can't embed links here.

For which I'm mildly grateful, because it's kind of annoying.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

HelIWithoutSin posted...

Ooh, nice. What tour/year is it from? I'm seeing them this October.

The one I was referencing was from The Singles Tour.

I also have one from the Tour of the Universe (which, along with the unopened program, has been in the bag it came in ever since - maybe I should take it out at some point), but I'd actually forgotten about that one when I was writing that first post.

I think I MIGHT have one from Touring the Angel - I forget whether or not I saw one I liked that time around (and I'd have to go looking to see if I could find it if I did, because it's probably hidden away somewhere if so). Though I DO know that I have a signed copy of the Playing the Angel CD/DVD combo I waited online for about 10 hours for the day before that concert.

I'm passing on the current concert, though (which is literally tonight in NYC/MSG, which is where I'd see them).


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

knivesX2004 posted...

BTB what the hell is going on with these hyperlinks?

I'd assume he wants to post things that are against the ToU, so he posts them on his own site and just links to them.

Which is in and of itself technically a ToU violation, I believe, but it is what it is.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Posting this just because:




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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
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HEY SHADOW!

Which D&D podcasts did you say you like/listen to again? I forget, and I've been considering the issue lately (because I'm up to like 12 hours a week worth of D&D podcasts at this point and it's starting to worry me).


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

JOExHIGASHI posted...

The choices are either to have a better life or don't have a better life

But if you currently have a good life and your past was great, then it could still easily be a net negative gain. Not everyone on the board is a tragic emo-kid bemoaning how terrible their life is/used to be.

Then there's also the fact that he in no way said how LONG your awesome future would last, so there's always the possibility that you might be giving up 40 years worth of great memories for a 10-year binge (or less).

There's also the argument that if a person is the sum of their memories, then the "you" that you currently are wouldn't be enjoying that better life anyway, since it would effectively be like "you" were dead and someone else walking around in your body would be having the awesome life.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Part of the problem is that you're mostly citing UK sources, where it's always been way more of a deal than it ever has in the US.

Which is probably down to the Irish. In the UK they've always been seen as troublemakers and problems right up to the point when they finally weaseled their way out of the Union (and then afterwards as well, during most of the problems in Northern Ireland), whereas in the US there's a ton of people of Irish descent who've had huge impacts on culture and society in general.

Different cultures are always going to produce different forms of racism, because racism is rarely knee-jerk disdain for the different (no matter how often some people like to paint it that way), but is usually motivated by at least a few other socio-economic factors as well.

In the same vein, I'd argue that racial discrimination against blacks was always stronger in the US than the UK (at least in modern times), whereas the UK probably had more pushback against Indians and Pakistanis for most of the later 20th century than the US ever did. And so on.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Pus_N_Pecans posted...

Pretty sure the only reason it's called Gaslighting is because it's named after the play/movie. But other people have already described WHAT it is.

Came in to point this out.

And to post this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslight_(1944_film)


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

"No, and I'm generally satisfied about that fact because I was always and still am completely apathetic about it as a console" probably wouldn't fit into the poll formatting.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

The flaw in your logic is that, if corporations ARE people, they're RICH people.

And NO state executes rich people. Even Texas.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

I used to baby-talk my dog all the time.

But I don't baby-talk actual babies, because it's better for human language development to talk to kids in clear words and phrasing, because that's how they learn. And just because they can't SPEAK words clearly yet doesn't mean they can't understand them - most infants understand adult speech perfectly well even as they're struggling to form their first words. The more you speak to them like a normal adult, the faster they'll learn.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Sahuagin posted...

saying tin-ITE-is seems to be an expectation that a medical issue would end in -itis, meaning inflammation, but this doesn't have anything to do with inflammation. it's definitely supposed to be TIN-it-us, apart from that confusion.

Again, it's both. Most dictionaries both online and off cite either as valid. And like I pointed out, most of the PSAs put out by actual medical organizations in the US don't use it the way you're arguing in favor of.

You're also kind of forcing the pronunciation of "tin-ITE-is" to emphasis the "-itis" to try and prove your point, but I'd say people who pronounce it that way could just as easily be leaning more towards "tin-EYE-tus", both pushing the t to the third syllable and pronouncing the word exactly the way it's spelled ("-itus"). And "itus" has nothing to do with inflammation or disease.

Like it or not, it's kind of a toe-may-toe/toe-mah-toe sort of situation.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

The Wave Master posted...

Holy Crap I thought Bobby "The Brain" Heenan was dead. Son of a gun. Yeah, cancer is a pain in the rear.

He was at the Chiller convention recently, and my friend went and was going to try and get his autograph, but he said that he looked so bad and was having trouble talking that it made him feel kind of awkward and he kind of avoided him instead (with that sort of "I'd rather remember him the way he used to be" mentality).

The worst part for him is that he sort of fell into that same sort of ironic hell that Ebert did, where he wound up getting cancer that kind of ruined his ability to talk, when he was probably best known for talking. At least in Ebert's case he could still write movie review articles, but with Heenan not being able to talk pretty much means not being Heenan.



The Wave Master posted...

I've been trying to mention that in South Park: The Fractured but Whole that if you start the game as a minority (Basically Black) the game difficulty is harder. The choices are less favorable, people treat you worse, and overall life in the game is more of a challenge.

The obvious response is, "That's racist." But it is pretty funny and truthful. I'm sure the NAACP is going to complain, but as a minority o thinking pretty funny.

I'd be inclined to say that no one worth caring about would complain, mainly because they did something similar in Stick of Truth where "Jew" was a character class and no one seemed to kick up much of a stink about it.

I'm sure some people online will bitch, but people online will bitch about pretty much everything, so fuck 'em.

Honestly, though, it's a South Park game - I'm sure there'll be far more horrible things in it than implied racism (or the condemnation of same via parody) anyway.

I mean, the last game basically had an achievement for watching your parents have sex for more than a minute.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Shanty_Irishman posted...

Linger longer!

~perks up~

O&A fan?


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

ajmrowland1 posted...

That whole storyline was weak. No spoilers, it just felt like one hamfisted 180 degree dramatic turn after another and I'm glad it ended, regardless.

It's because the show sort of floundered once they left GRRM's writing behind and had to start coming up with their own plots (ie, he told them how the story is supposed to end, but not how he was planning to get there, so now they're struggling to connect the dots). Nor does it really help that they now feel like they have to close off every hanging storyline in the span of two short seasons, so a lot of stuff is going to feel rushed while other stuff simultaneously feels a bit aimless.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Sahuagin posted...

Krazy_Kirby posted...

ninja_lootz posted...

I have a pretty mild case from listening to loud music.

it's TIN-it-us, not tin-ITE-is. it's not -itis which would mean inflamation/infection.

Both pronunciations are technically valid.

And honestly, most of the officials PSAs I've heard always use tin-EYE-tus. And have since the 1980s.



My perception of it has always been that Americans tend to use tin-EYE-tus while British people seem to say TIN-eh-tus. So I've always just chalked it up as a regional issue and accept either (in the same way I don't see any real difference between aluminum and aluminium).


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

The Wave Master posted...

The truth is we all need Bobby "The Brain" Heenan to not be dead and come and show people how to do great color heel commentary.

He's not dead. But he's in really bad shape.

Cancer's a bitch.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Kyuubi4269 posted...

It was determined perfectly valid, which leads to the conclusion that she is a raving lunatic SJW.

Even if it wasn't valid, that doesn't really change the fact that she's pretty clearly a raving SJW regardless.

It's like being in WWII and hearing Stalin call out Hitler for killing too many innocent people.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Kevman510 posted...

Anyone have a picture of this preorder shirt?

If I remember correctly, it had Cloud in profile with the Buster Sword sort of drawn and held over his shoulder, with Midgar in the background and the logo.

I don't have any pictures of it, but I'll try to trawl the Interwebs for a bit to see if I can find it somewhere.



EDIT: Found this, though I'm pretty sure this isn't the exact version of the shirt I'm thinking of:

http://thelifestream.net/news/final-fantasy-vii-news/9892/close-your-eyes-its-august-1997/attachment/ff7-shirt-coupon-sears-funtronics


EDIT 2: I think that is the same shirt, actually. I think I was confusing it with the game art in my head:

http://john.do/retiring-my-final-fantasy-7-tshirt


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Hot, but I always preferred her in this one more:




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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Zeus posted...

Also, before anybody even attempts to judge me

Too late, I'd already judged you.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

From her own university bio:

"I am a self-proclaimed feminist and womanist"

"I value inclusivity as well as building and preserving safe spaces for us"

"I will continue to engage in the discussions started with academics on the WhyIsMyCurriculumWhite campaign"

...yeah, not surprised that an ultra SJW is throwing a tantrum.

I AM surprised that the article openly listed her name, though (or conversely, that the university openly acknowledged that she'd made the complaint). Because I feel like she's going to eat about as much backlash from this as he will.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

Zeus posted...

Ramsay Bolton was also an incredible heel, although he wasn't nearly as hatable as Joffrey because Joffrey also established himself as a sniveling crybaby so he really had no redeeming features.

Ramsay also has an odd sort of coolness to him. Like, he's clearly crazy, but he's also a bit snarky, and like you implied, he DOES get shit done. So while he's way more squicky in some ways, he's also more likeable in an odd, twisted sort of way.

Sure, you're still rooting for someone to shove three feet of steel directly into his face, but I don't think you get that same universally visceral YES! moment with him the way you do with Little King Shitheel.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
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But I freely acknowledge that I'm a piece of shit, and thus, am entirely validated and justified to pull the "It takes one to know one" card and correctly identify all of the myriad ways in which other people are also pieces of shit.

If anything, it's far better than having the illusion of moral high-ground when you start throwing stones. Instead, we're all pretty much in the same pig-sty throwing clods of manure at each other.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family

It's normal and acceptable to be passionate about the fictional lives of characters in any form of media, because the entire point of art is to make you feel something, and the best performances of any entertainment product should succeed at that - whether it being making you like a character so much that you cry when they die or lose something precious, or to hate a villain character so strongly that it makes the hero's success all the more satisfying (see also, how many people wanted Joffrey dead in Game of Thrones).

If you wind up disliking characters you're clearly meant to like/empathize with, or loving people you're clearly supposed to be repulsed by, that's still relatively normal, but it also tends to imply that the writer of the piece absolutely failed at doing what they were supposed to do (ie, most of the time it's bad/stupid writing that leads you to reject the intended arc and start making your own).

I'm not going to go down all your examples (especially since I haven't seen some of them), but I can at least point out that the WWE is definitely an example of the writers not being able to find their ass with both hands and a map, so a lot of characters these days are falling flat, and a lot of the heels are coming across way more likeable or justifiable than the babyfaces are (*cough*Roman Reigns*cough*). That's not your fault (as much as the WWE likes to pretend that it is), that's their fault.

But in general, humans (at least in modern times) always tend to think that the bad guys are cooler than the good guys.


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family