clyde

At the very least, I want to learn enough musical theory to understand what conditions allow this mash-up to work: via @wasnotwhynot

I'm more concerned with global warming and the extinction-rate of various life-forms on this planet.

This is the case. I watched some documentary about the Fukushima disaster where they were talking about how they needed a human-like to navigate into the melt-down to turn valves and door-handles and other such instruments that were designed to be manipulated by humans. I also read an article recently about how the Chernobyl disaster would have been far worse if not for three human individuals who basically served that same purpose, knowing that their bodies would literally fall apart if they failed or succeeded. http://m.scotsman.com/news/stephen-mcginty-lead-coffins-and-a-nation-s-thanks-for-the-chernobyl-suicide-squad-1-1532289

I see where you are coming from with thinking that the boy-bands are formed and directed for folks who are sexually attracted to boys and that girl-groups are for folks who are sexually attracted to girls, but being a kpop-fan, this generalization feels like it misses a significant portion of how these bands are appreciated. I just spent a little while trying to research the gender stats of the fandoms, but all I could find was conjecture. I suspect that most Hyuna fans are heterosexual males, but I would think (again this is just the impression I have from consuming this material for a few years) that 2NE1 (the band that CL is in) has a significant quantity of heterosexual female fans. For some reason, I strongly suspect that Girls Generation has a lot of heterosexual female fans. Also, anecdotally, I'm a heterosexual male and I really enjoy a bunch of the songs from kpop boy-bands such as EXO, Big Bang, and Beast. I think you are right though, I just think summarizing it that way passes over the experiences of a lot of folks. I wouldn't go as far as to say that the Hyuna video empowers women or challenges the patriarchy, but from all the press-releases, videos, variety shows, interviews, and such that I've seen (I'm not a big Hyuna fan, but she is a goofily strange person and I began to notice her a lot when reading the kpop news feeds) she just seems like she wants to do what she is doing. I don't know if that reflects on the dancers. I do want to point out that CL has a dominant role in her video and I still feel the difference that I originally mentioned. I don't know how much influence Hyuna has over her videos, but I suspect that she has a lot more than you suspect she does. Again, these are all just impressions; the entire kpop world is a strange hyper-reality that makes and promotes its own truths. What an excellent attempt to debug.

I think it's interesting that I see this video as grotesquely disrespectful towards women: While I don't feel this one is disrespectful even though it features similar poses, imagery, and fashion: I'm not sure others will have the same opinion, but I'm trying to work out the difference I feel personally. In the CL video, it seems like women are being displayed and depreciated for use as objects while in the Hyuna video it feels like playful vulnerability is being displayed by women. The women in the Hyuna video appear to be attempting to entice with their sexuality while the women in the CL video (with the exception of CL) seem defeated. Wouldn't it be interesting if my difference of opinion was based on the difference in sonic aesthetics between the two?

Telepath

thanks, I'm enjoying this.

I don't know if it's your type of thing, but Ludum Dare entries are coming in and I think it's fun to download the ones with compelling screenshots and titles to try them out. The fact that they originate from a three-day jam tends to result in brevity. The prompt is You are the monster which, interestingly is significantly different than You were the monster all along.

I'm having a surprisingly good time working on Knytt Story levels and I wanted to share my progress. I've used tile-sets a little bit while playing around with Construct 2 and RPG Maker 2003, but Knytt Stories is the first time I've spent enough time with one to finish anything small. Here's my first Knytt level for posterity. Now I'm working on this one. What I like about this level-editor is that I can sit down and make a screen in the time it would take me to do a Spelunky run. Each screen can then be copied and pasted next to any other to make a continuous grid of these screens for exploration.The potential for a low-commitment, patch-work type of work-flow fits into my life really well. I think I'll make a video demonstrating the level-editor later, but the basic idea is that you choose two pre-made tilesets and start decorating the screen. The tiles can be layered and much of my enjoyment is just testing various tiles on top of others. I don't often think of the visual aesthetics of my games and I feel that making these levels is helping me form a sensibility for it. Here's the one I'm most proud of at the moment Typically, I don't really enjoy doing art for games as much as I enjoy tuning random numbers and implementing simple systems. But putting these tiles down is halfway between doing a jigsaw-puzzle and collaging and I just kinda zone out while I half-way watch the movie that my wife is watching in the same room. Then I end up with this quilt of beautiful (or at least visually interesting) platforming levels that my little pixel person can jump around in. Simple pleasures ya know? If anyone else starts playing around with this level-editor, share them in this thread. I already posted a bit about Knytt Stories in another thread, and for simplicity I want to paste the instructions for how to install custom levels in this thread too. --------------------------------------- I've attached a gif to show y'all how to install custom levels. -Basically you want to download Knytt Stories from here. -Then download a level. -Then do this: If you end up wanting to try your own hand at making a level here is a good guide that can get you started. Make sure you tell me if you make one! The thing I like about making Knytt games is that most of my time is spent just flipping through beautiful tile-sheets and trying out combinations of them. It's like trying to match wall-paper and curtains. -----------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been just doodling with screens and now adding a bit of audio and text just to test it. I also decided to make a barrier screen that I could copy and paste around the borders of the game as it is. I decided that it would be more interesting than just falling through purple screens. It's not elegant. I really like the idea of just tiling screens when I want to do something simple, adding text when I have a mood I want to voice, and adding musical motifs or something while I'm experimenting in music making. I'm tempted to start a new Knytt level, but there would be no reason too; I'm still very much just getting used to the tools, testing things out, and trying to come up with routine solutions (for when I'm too lazy to come up with elegant solutions. It's whatever. I still feel that this is a good way for me to play with and develop a sensibility for level-design (in contrast to tuning random generation). New build.

I've been playing mostly ranked matches lately and I just got to the place where I feel like I am playing with people at similar skill levels to my own, consistently. This is where I want to be.

The question seems to have become "Does benefitting from white-priviledge promote or reinforce white-supremacy?" and I think that's a great question. I'm not sure. I'm going to look for some articles and videos that address the question of "How can white-priviledge be used to destroy racism?" One of the first answers I've come across suggests that the key is seeking the opinion of those who are suffering from the injustice about how you can help.

I'm confused. How is cultural appropriation in the context of the example different than poor treatment of black musicians? They seem like the same thing to me, so the desire to show causation seems really odd.

I believe the assumption is that black musicians lost sales to white musicians and did not receive due credit for their cultural contribution.

Full disclosure: I sometimes paint a few of my nails without considering the traditional reasons for it. I also wear a straw hat and a lot of people assume I have some sort of agricultural background because of that (I don't, I just like how straw hats feel light, are made of very accessible material, they are cheap, and they cover the back of my neck). edit: Also, if you want to see some obvious examples of how cultural appropriation of blackness can be used for the grittiness that promotes and is promoted by racist perceptions, just look at K-pop. This scene is especially offensive to me.

An analysis of the value of computer games in comparison to free donuts and coffee for the adults. http://sundaysoftware.com/site/cost/ -via Porpentine

I thought the Daily Challenge was especially fun today.

I agree with everything Cleinhun said. I'd also like to respond though. To me, this type of terminology serves a similar purpose to how some dungeon-masters require that players speak in character when exchanging information. There is a lot of coherent theming in the game that is amplified if you think of the games parts in cyberpunk terms; if you have no interest in cyberpunk the game loses a lot of its joy. I didn't think that Count Zero was a masterpiece, but that book really helped me appreciate Netrunner. For instance, it's not a deck like a deck of cards, it's a deck like a computer console that you bought from a shady pawn shop that is known to have connections to some console cowboy known to have flatlined because she got too curious about rumors involving questionable bio-medical research done by the global corporation that runs both all the hospitals and who all manufactures all the pharmaceuticals. Your heap is the pile of equipment that you've fried in attempts to hack into networked computer systems that can fight back; you leave the pile of broken tech and corrupted software in a corner in case you need to scavenge for parts. Corps have Research and Development pipelines that result in proprietary technologies and business opportunities that only high amounts of capital allow. Some of it proves useful, but even when it doesn't they keep in in their Archive in case they need to refer to it latter. Really, I wouldn't recommend playing this game without imagining the theme of making runs on corporate servers to steal secrets they can sell for more equipment to hack into more protected servers. You really have to adjust your running strategy based on where the corporation has invested their security. If Headquarters, R&D, and remote servers always feel too well protected, then you might need to try using an anarchist deck or play a Sneakdoor Beta so that they have to protect their Archives too. But one thing that took me a while to get used to is that this game is tuned to have runners win by risking everything on one-last-shot. Time is on the side of the Corp and each run is supposed to be painful. make sure you aren't thinking of it as trying to permanently open a server so much as finding exploits that are going to be patched as soon as the opponent knows what you are planning. Between putting in cards like Special Order (lets you look in your deck for an icebreaker), Inside Job (bypass first piece of ICE), Tinkering (ICE gains sentry, barrier, or code gate til end of turn) you should be able to access at least one vulnerability every turn or two early and mid game. When I play Corp and I'm not drawing money resources, I use my clicks for credits while keeping Headquarters full of possibilities, putting out bluffs to waste the runner's clicks, and praying that no high-point agendas show up in Research and Development before I can afford some ICE. These games can actually be really rewarding. When the runner has drawn the same card from Headquarters for the past three runs, it flavors the entire game and they think you are some sort of lucky mastermind (which you may be). The Corp was probably making some gambits that could have gone either way and you chose wisely. If the runner is getting a lot of cash, make decisions based off the likelihood that they will be playing aggressively. If the Corp has got a money maker, target it. Along with what Cleinhun said about this, managing risk does involve knowing what cards are available to the Corp. This goes back to another suggestion of something Cleinhun said. If you are learning the game with someone and the two of you start with just the core-set, you can account for all the card-possibilities much more easily than if you are being taught by a veteran who has every expansion. There are some very bad draws, but they happen to me rarely. Usually, a drawing poorly can be hedged by suggesting that you are doing things that you aren't. It takes some familiarity of the game from both you and your opponent though. It's even better if the two of you have played a lot together and you can feign strategies that are infamous in your shared memory of the game. There are a ton of ways to bluff in Netrunner, but the opponent needs to be able to recognize what you might be doing in order for it to be effective. As far as being ground to dust due to a resource advantage. Time is on the Corp's side. This is part of the game-balance. The runner needs to feel a sense of urgency during the game. Each mistake has an opportunity cost.

If I see some car-fashion that I must have, I'll think about getting some for myself. I wonder if they will ever sell new directional pad commands. I would imagine that an emoji-pack would sell well.

I'm surprised how much I like the new stadium. I tend to think that cosmetic-only changes don't have much of an effect on a game. But the horns and the tiles and the color feel fresh. It makes me wonder what some other stadium themes could be. Maybe a jungle-temple theme would be cool, or... I don't know. I'm just surprised by how much I enjoy it.

That's correct. The ice stays on the server. You are boosting the strength of the ice-breaker so it can interact with the ice. Boosting the strength of one doesn't get the other ice-breaker to enough of a strength to interact with the ice. There are some ice-breakers that reduce the strength of the ice though. So theoretically you could reduce the strength of the ice with one ice-breaker to the point where another is strong enough to affect it. Both ice-breakers would have to be of the type to interact with the type of ice the runner is encountering in this scenario.

Are you using a Playstation controller with x360ce? A friend of mine is having similar issues and he thinks this might have something to do with his problem.

Did you have a specific example in mind?

I'm running it fine on a GTX 460se and i5-760.

That sucks.