Gormongous

I understand where you're coming from, but there's a reason that Jezebel and Shakesville and all those feminist blogging sites have a "Feminism 101" to which they refer all newbies and trolls without exception. The sort of understanding that you have found for yourself only comes from within, through voluntary self-education in good faith. There just aren't enough hours in the day to engage every single person spewing hate speech on a comment thread and make sure that they aren't just speaking out from a lack of empathy and perspective. I just don't know. I have a lot of difficulty talking to people whose response to someone else's pain and distress is to say, "Suck it up," except maybe to ask them to stop, so I don't really want to spend my free time doing it too much, not when I can't make them change on my own.

Yeah, agreed. All these guys have great synergy on the cast, at least in that one where they're all there, so I can only imagine a company made up of them is going to be something to watch.

I really enjoyed the even-handedness of RockPaperShotgun in its article today about the question of boycotting PAX. It took multiple positions at face value and gave them equal attention & credence, which made me feel like there's a way forward with all of this. Then the comments take five posts to devolve into accusations of RPS "bullying" PAX and that tired, disgusting practice of asking why rape victims get preference over murder and theft victims. There's no hope for humanity. We live a hundred years and then rot forever in the ground.

I'll never forget the first day of Christmas rush, when an old lady came in and tried to exchange a book she'd been given sometime during the summer, with neither sticker nor receipt. I explained right away that it was against policy to accept a return in such condition, even if it were to have been under ninety days since sale, but that my manager could make an exception if she wanted to speak with him. She said that wouldn't be necessary, preferring instead to bend my ear for well over ten minutes, repeating herself in increasingly cruel and condescending ways, while a line built up behind her. Finally, when she'd more or less said right out that I was stupid and lazy and that's why I wouldn't accept her return, because I didn't and couldn't know how, I said -- and, like Nachimir, I remember my exact words, for me because I really don't like being put on the spot -- "Ma'am, I understand that this is frustrating for you, but it is not my decision, so please don't be so mean to me." Well, then she wanted to speak with my manager. A couple minutes with him, then he sent me home with a warning about "disrespecting" customers and the rest of the week off. About the only things that made that day not a total wash were the next two people in line telling me how kind and patient they thought I had been. Fuck that place.

Nreckon... Brick Neckon... Aww, I fucked it up, guys. Can we start over?

Here's the 1821 world-state for the Tuscany-to-Italy game I've been moaning about for a week: No further comment, besides that I'm so so so lucky that France ate half of Spain and half of the Empire during the last decades of the seventeenth century, putting the entire world in an anti-French coalition that I used to break it up into its constituent countries. It moved its capital to Ghana ten years later and started eating Mali, leaving me free to take the Balkan peninsula out from under the Ottomans.

Someone wanted to feel important, but Nachimir didn't give him that, so he settled for trying to ruin his day and his career instead. It's something that I ran into all the time working customer service, especially at Border's Books & Music.

I think the tech support thread by general decision has become https://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/topic/8377-damn-it-but-computers-have-become-really-complicated/ Your problem would definitely fit in there. I consider myself fairly savvy with all things computer but I have no clue.

This is actually not the case at all, in my experience. SEGA is said to be responsible for the ugly, rushed launches for Empire: Total War and Total War: Rome II, as well as the nickel-and-dime DLC design for all games since Empire. And if you include other companies, Obsidian got the shaft pretty bad with Alpha Protocol, being forced to hit a release date they knew it couldn't, allegedly on the promise of patches that SEGA never let them release. The story may be different with a Japanese developer or a console-oriented developer -- and in fact I hope it is, because Atlus is great stuff -- but SEGA has not been a very good friend to the PC, at least not in the past decade.

I tried typing out some HTML, but my version of Rome II didn't become any more fun. I wonder if I'm doing it wrong?

For different routes, the gap between the second and third day have different purposes. I'm glad you liked it. These two games are among my favorites, but so many incidental things (the format, the presentation, the themes) make me worried that others won't connect like I have.

I played until the endgame content, then my browser refreshed on its own and my save didn't keep, so I count myself as done. It was a crazy week, though.

That makes two of us! Also, I think I like Analogue more too, but the way that Hate Plus forces you into a slow burn really got to me.

Eh, I think it's probably the other way around. Watching a large amount of anime inures you to different standards of quality and different rubrics of innovation. It's kind of like gamers calling Bioshock Infinite the most daring and inventive game of the year, except there's no critical press in anime to give a second opinion. That being what it is, someone who considers themselves an "outsider" watching an anime and finding it dumb is enough for me to spend my time elsewhere.

See, this is maybe the biggest problem I'm having with anime right now. Over the past few months, I had heard from several people whose opinion I trust that 009 RE: CYBORG was the anime movie to catch in 2013. There's just not much difference in content or tone between critical and popular discussions of anime online. At least this is one less thing to watch (or just watch clips on YouTube).

I currently live in Missouri, which has a fairly mild climate for the South (mostly because it's not really the South, but don't get me started). My first year here, I had no funding, so I couldn't afford to turn on the AC. I spent the majority of my summer buck naked with a table fan on my desk pointed at my face and I still nearly died. Missouri is at the same latitude as Morocco and Tunisia. I've never been there, but I'm pretty sure Arizona is murder.

It starts out being ironic about being unironic, but forgets/doesn't care by the end. It's actually great at the end when Manami, the childhood friend, is like, "You know what you're doing is impossible and also gross, right?" But everyone else besides the brother and sister is great fun, plus there's a lot of money on display. It's an odd one.

I just finished the second season of Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (translation: I Can't Believe I'd Pass Up an Adorable Goth Girl for My Evil Shrew of a Little Sister). It was the sort of show that I couldn't believe I was watching almost the whole time. I've seen my share of harem anime, but never one where I was any less onboard with the main couple. Literally any other female that appeared onscreen would have been preferable to the toxic and annoying Kirino, even Kuroneko's ten-year-old sister Hinata, who seemed to have a good head on her shoulders. It's especially unbelievable because there are some really and truly enjoyable side characters fighting Kirino for screen time. Kuroneko, Saori, and Manami were all joys to have around, but they all got rejected by Kyousuke because of fiat-by-source-material. It almost makes me want to get a hacked PSP to play the visual novel and actually see an ending with Kuroneko that doesn't leave her in tears. Ugh, anime.

I mean the I, II, and III cards. The evil machinations are fun, but they're really only for groups that either 1) are experienced enough that they need the challenge, or 2) love horrific failures and player elimination a lot.

Okay, having now listened to the podcast, I only have one thing to add, since I agree with just about everything else. Rob, how could you possibly think that there would be a "quick reference" pack-in for the boxed copy of Total War: Rome II? I have it in my hands right now and am the proud owner of a four-page manual that lists keybinds and advertises the tie-in novel. Nothing else remains.

Yeah, it's not like there are critically acclaimed shows depicting insane meth-head criminals in a serious light or anything, jeez.

It's kind of annoying that Fantasy Flight Games has two really and truly lifeless science-fiction settings that they seem determined to use as their one-size-fits-all re-theming of various rescue properties. The Twilight Imperium universe was a terrible fit for Rex, as evidenced by the fact that every single person just talks about it in terms of Dune anyway. Android is a bit better fit for Netrunner, but it still feels like a "punk" aesthetic as conceived by a corporation. Ugly and tasteless as it is, the art for the old game just has so much damn character.

I don't bother with the increased difficulty bits. Just mix in the cards right away and add in the extra ship parts when your crew feels comfortable adding a bit more to the table.

I can hear the music, nooooo...