tberton

Has Pixar really had a "string of disappointments"? I know that Brave had a fairly lukewarm reception, but Monsters University seemed to be surprisingly well liked (I haven't seen either, except for twenty minutes of Monsters University, so this is just going off of internet chatter). Then of course there's Cars 2, but did nayone have high enough expectations for that movie that they could call themselves "disappointed"?

I think it was mostly just Jake trying to make an interesting point about Counter-Stike, while Sean just wanted to gush about how much he loves Counter-Strike, so that they weren't so much arguing as jockeying for air time.

Oh wow, that's terrible. I love it.

Tell me. I need to know.

In terms of "how do they know this stuff is useful", you could make the same argument about any resource in any Civ game.

Well, there is the starting benefit you can choose that gives you an outline of the continents. But yeah, I guess I can see how it's a bit of a missed opportunity.

I don't know, not knowing anything about the planet seems pretty easy to justify within the fiction: they don't have the tools for detailed scans, didn't have time, can't make sense of what they do find out.

My favourite example of Simpson's joke density is from Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace, when Marge is explaining how Willy became a dream-jumping murderer. Marge: It was the 13th hour of the 13th day of the 13th month [joke]. We were at the school to discuss the misprinted calendars [joke]. [Visual joke showing a calendar that says "Smarch"] Homer: Brrr... lousy Smarch weather [joke]. [Homer walks to the thermostat, sees a sign that says Don't Touch - Willy]. Don't touch Willy, good advice [joke]. Then there's the whole sequence of Willy getting burned and trying to save himself, intercut with the PTA meeting explaining how they cut the budget for everything that would have saved him It's like fifteen jokes in one minute. It's nuts.

So I've just started my MA in Public History. I'm really enjoying the program so far and the people are great, but some of the stuff I've had to read is incredibly dense. It's interesting and informative, but not super clearly written. For instance, I'm currently reading Hans-Georg Gadamer, a mid-century German philosopher. Here is a line from Chapter 2 of his book Philosophical Hermeneutics Somebody wrote that with a straight face. Anyway, does anybody else have any interesting/horror stories from their studies?

Man, I love the two innnermost stories of Cloud Atlas. Zachry's story is my favourite. And I didn't really mind the cult stuff in Thousand Autumns, although the book didn't really start shining for me until Penhaligon shows up.

That's unfortunate to hear. I am really excited to read The Bone Clocks though, since most of the stuff I've heard has been great.

Yeah, part of that is that when discussing complex ideas, it's easier to find a single word or group of words to represent a concept that you'll be using a lot rather than constantly having to re-explain what you're talking about. And you use everyday words in slightly different senses, because making up entirely new words is really hard and confusing. Then again, using everyday words gets confusing too because people have a hard time distinguishing between different meanings, as you're saying. A similar problem to this one is why formal logic developed propositional calculus and why mathematicians sought to create formal systems for number theory. Going back to that Gadamer piece, we discussed it in class today and I realized that I understood far more than I thought I had and that he's actually got some extremely interesting ideas. That's what I love about school: sometimes you read a lot of bullshit, but other times you read stuff that looks like bullshit but is in fact just tough to understand, but once you do understand you feel so... expanded, I guess?

This is why the Looper explanation of time travel is the best: don't think about it, it's happening, it doesn't matter why it's happening.

Oh hey, somebody actually brought up The Dinner Party in this same class, since it's about historical representation. We didn't actually discuss it in detail though.

Cool, this is me: ello.co/thomasberton

I still haven't played Mass Effect 3, but I loved Mass Effect 2. I thought that the focus on the characters was a great choice: it felt like Ocean's Eleven, rounding up this team of cool, interesting people. And I liked that they weren't afraid to switch up the type of gameplay you were engaging in for each of the missions. Garrus' mission, where he wants you to kill the guy who sold out his team, and you're just staring down your sniper scope trying to decide if the guy deserves to die, is still one of the tensest moments I've ever experienced in a game. And I thought the finally was brilliant, except for the Terminator boss of course. That said, I would love a Telltale style Mass Efffect game.

Gate gold game jeff blum gate dog cool shit damn.

I'm curious too and wouldn't mind an invite.

Considering that videos of Sunless Sea show a place called "Fallen London", I'm going to say that they're related.

Yeah, I figured that's what had happened.

Great episode, everyone, as usual! Jake, the Smash Bros. demo is available to the public right now, so you can play it if you want. Also, this isn't available in the demo, but the "unique thing" for this iteration of Smash Bros. is customizable moves. You'll be able to acquire alternate special moves for characters that have slightly different effects and animations. That could be cool, or terrible, but it's certainly an interesting change for the series. Also, while the "Women fighters are archers" trope is absolutely extremely common, I think it's worth pointing out that Game of Thrones has quite a few female combatants who are not archers: Arya, Brienne (arguably the physically strongest character in the series), the Sand Snakes, the Mormonts. All those characters fight with swords, although I'm not certain how prominently they feature in the show, since I stopped watching in the second season - all this knowledge comes from the books. That might also be why Danielle's characterization of Ygritte (Jon Snow's girlfriend) as an archer kind of surprised me: maybe that's how she's portrayed in the show, but in the books she always seemed like a fighter who would just fight with whatever tools were most convenient for the situation. I might be misremembering though.

Played some Game of Thrones last night. It was awesome.

Hey Soren, I know that earlier in the year you were talking about streaming your plays of the game. Are there still plans for that? I would be really interested in that.

Last night I dreamed that the mystery you discover in Firewatch is that a bunch of different groups are using the the forest to play a giant game of Diplomacy. There were big lines in the ground denoting different territories and everything. I thought to myself that this would distract from the relationship between Henry and Delilah, but then the voice of Vanaman reassured me that it wouldn't.

I'm with Gormongous here. In fact, I think the Thumbs had a similar conversation about violence in games once, in Episode 119: You, Fisher, talking about how using violence as the primary means of action in a game might not make people into killers, but it does make them more accepting of a world where violence is common.