Bjorn

Doodles were a lot more neat when they weren't damn near every day (or at least it seems like they are now).

I'm disappointed that there aren't more ways to abuse Sony's fanart tool.

I'm actually with Ben on this, the second Cap movie was really underwhelming to me for a number of reasons, particularly given how much of a pleasant surprise the first one was for me. It was fun enough, and I'm glad I watched it for the sake of seeing the whole universe, but it could have been much, much better. IM3 was the most forgettable of all the IM movies for me.

I know nothing about WoT other than articles I've read about it over the last couple of years, but I was under the impression that they had attempted to purge paytowin items from their store, and relied on cosmetic and subscription purchases now? Maybe not. I think ethical concerns about media and advertising are always valid, but I'm really not seeing it in this case. WoT doesn't seem like the kind of game that any of the Thumbs are going to get into (based on the years of gaming talk they've done). So none of them are likely to have their opinions swayed by having WoT as an advertiser. WoT appears to be a well received and well liked game by lots of folks, so it's not like they are advertising a shitty, broken game. And, as demonstrated here, there are fans of the Thumbs who were previously interested who signed up for an account because WoT advertised. So the advertising worked, and WoT will at least see some positive return from having paid the Thumbs. That's about as good as advertising can get. Paying content creators to insert ads into their content is inherently problematic, and the best you can do is structure it to have the least impact.

I just went to do a search for local co-op games on Steam, and they've removed the Categories for co-op and local co-op from advanced search. WTH Valve? Why would you remove search options from an advanced search tool?

That video doesn't remind me of how little I miss DS1 backstabs, and how much I miss ragdoll physics.

I think we are mostly in agreement here. I'm sure it is weird to see a room full of dudes discussing feminism. To go along with your example of Latino/Hispanic topics, every single article or video I see about the recent immigrant child crisis that doesn't include a Central American voice disturbs the fuck out of me, because it's instantly so clear what an incomplete, and often inherently biased, picture that story contains. I guess that's what I was trying to address, that this thread, as imperfect or weird as it may be, is better than silence. And it represents the general Thumbs community as caring about these issues and self-defining as a community that wants diverse opinions. A step on the way to more diversity is to create gaming communities that aren't toxic and antagonistic to people who aren't white dudes. I hope that we are one of those rare gaming communities, and that this thread has helped it be even better.

Groundhog Day meets Gone Home

This is really an issue of podcasting in general, in a lot of ways. Of the most popular podcasts, roughly 70 percent have male only hosts, 10 percent have female only hosts, 10 percent have mixed gender hosts and 10 percent have no host (think news aggregation 'casts). The male voice isn't just dominant in the podcasting world, it's almost the only voice you'll hear. Given that most podcasts cover focused or niche areas, that has to end up affecting both the total audience and the active fan audience, right? That's disturbing, but it is one of those problems where there's no clear solution. Find podcasts you like hosted by women, and support those casts? Put pressure on existing male only casts to add female hosts when the opportunity arrives? Something like the second happened with the Thumbs, but in the most positive way. Danielle as a guest was fabulous, and we all made it clear how much we liked having her on the show. She brought a great new perspective, not only because she was a woman, but also because she's a journalist with different gaming tastes and with a quite different background than all the guys (as highlighted in the last cast with the brief discussion on all the different kinds of places she's worked). But then you see what happens when people put pressure on Giant Bomb to hire a woman, and the Internet explodes. I just want to highlight this real quick, and say to be careful about making assumptions that that almost all the people posting there fall under the hetero-brella. Unless a person is discussing their relationships or private life, there's no need to present in a forum where you fall in the sexuality spectrum. Demographically, the majority of people do identify as hetero, but there are likely people posting in or reading that thread who aren't, but who don't want to publicly state here how they identify. There are a lot of people on this forum who I have never seen bring up a partner or relationship. I don't know how they identify, and I've tried to break myself of automatically assuming I know what someone's sexuality is if they haven't explicitly stated it. Okay, back to the rest of your post, part of your it seems to be lamenting that this a thread that is mostly dudes talking about feminism. But that's important too, particularly when you can see over the history of this thread men learning and refining their opinions about various things. Expressing confusion about a particular subject, and getting more information and viewpoints on it. Yes, it would be great if there were more women in this community and in this thread. But there's also that idea that it isn't a woman's job to educate men about feminism and sexist issues, that there is plenty of information and evidence out there if a man wants to learn. A thread like this is (hopefully) spreading accurate and good information about feminism and sexist issues. As men, we don't want to put our words in women's mouths about their experiences, but we also don't want to insist that they alone shoulder the burden of proving that sexism exists and that feminism is still a needed force in our society.

Three types, some of us just want pure chaos! I actually don't like planning an encounter, but running into a group, accidentally aggroing some other stuff, start screaming "fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck", run away like my hair is on fire (sometimes literally), regroup, and then somehow escape alive with some shiny new loot. That's the sweet spot for an ARPG for me. My berserker gives that experience through just charging in like a bowling ball hitting pins, while the Outlander is more like the last soldier holding the line, trying to keep the horde from getting to her, and when the wave breaks all hell comes with it. I think it may be the Necro specifically that makes it easier, with all those minions. I briefly brought my Berserker over to a Synergies game, and got murdered within a few minutes of running into an area. To be fair, I think the Necro is awesome, I love having an army at my back. Ultimately it just doesn't give that chaotic experience that I want.

That was fantastic!

So I was under the impression that Synergies overall makes the game harder, but maybe the new classes in it are just really broken. We decided to start over to try the mod out, I took the Necromancer and she took the Warlock. On Veteran, it was like easy mode. One death between both of us by the time we reached the first Guardian, and that was an early death. The last hour we played was a yawn fest, just mowing down the hordes without even having to exert any effort. The Necromancer certain feels broken though. The sheer number of summons available, and comparatively low casting cost, is such that aggro might as well not exist. Or maybe we just need to bump difficulty up to Elite.

Welcome to the forums! Random knowledge always welcome.

The Notorious R.G.B. speaks! It's well worth watching or listening to the whole thing. It's a treat, particularly given how rarely justices give interviews.

Oooo, just hit Danielle mentioning Pontypool! Can we talk about Pontypool? I'd like that, I gush about that movie to the few people who will listen. Hardly anyone I know has seen it, and I've tried to just suggest it without pushing it too hard. Seriously, it's arguably my favorite zombie flick ever, outside of the original Night of the Living Dead. The intersection of language, disease, zombies and news radio is all sooooo good.

Don't think we have a thread for video game movie stuff, and it's different enough to not get lumped into the big movie/TV thread. So that Heavenly Sword movie is not only still a thing, but it has a release date and everything. I really liked Heavenly Sword and will probably rent this with super low expectations. It appears to just be a retelling of the games story, nothing new. It's a shame that game didn't do better. I, by and large, like everything Ninja Theory has done. It's just a shame their original IP work hasn't had wider success. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oovoY1mG_Z4

With the new avatar, I have to fight the urge to respond to every one of your posts like this: Ok.

That's a good point, and I think it's hard to know what a person thinks a lot of times. The truth is I find stuff like erotic fan art to be fascinating, along with a WTF?! component. It doesn't do anything erotically for me, but I'm certainly interested in it and the creators. But I often just default by responding in a WTF?! manner, because that's easier.

Well, that's the funniest thing I've ever read on Buzzfeed. Apparently someone is sensitive about shitty headlines and contentless stories. Holy fuckaround, these people don't understand what a good headline is, or what clickbait is. Or they want to intentionally obfuscate what a good headline is. Checkout Deadspin's defense of modern headlines. I actually think Deadspin by and large does a better job than a lot of other sites. Odd aside, I was surprised to see the Lawrence Journal-World referenced in that DS piece, and the author didn't go to school at Kansas. The journalism school at KU is huge, and you can almost always spot alumni by a few references that any other alumnus would recognize. So many students work or freelance for the LJW at some point (myself included), that it manages to find itself referenced in all sorts of interesting places. Edited to add: Merus' last line is pretty much the best response possible. Edited to add more: DAMMIT MERUS!

I installed the Synergies mod last night, and tried it briefly with a new character (the Necromancer class). We might copy our vanilla characters over, as that seems like it works fine, you just can't safely copy Synergies characters back to a vanilla game without possibly breaking something. My biggest complaint so far for 2 player co-op is that there just aren't enough enemies, particularly in the overworld areas. I actually tried, and then removed, two automatic multi-target abilities, as I was wiping out spawns before my wife could even open fire. I'm not necessarily interested in all the Synergies changes, but it seems like it's the best balanced mod for having more and harder enemies without breaking anything. I found a standalone mod for it, but it can increase the spawn rate by up to 5x, which seems excessive. I'll probably leave my Outlander on vanilla, as the mob count feels pretty appropriate for playing alone. I wonder if there is a way in crafting for these types of games to find a balance between RNG crafting and pure player choice/design. I spent most of an hour last night screwing around trying to craft or buy a complete Blood Leather set (the perfect set for a Berserker at my level). It was just a time/gold sink to get it done. But I don't that it would have been very fulfilling to just be able to make it because I wanted it. That was a problem with Kingdoms of Amalur. I was able to craft a set I loved by halfway through the game, and never needed to consider another piece of armor in the game, which was ultimately a lame experience.

That would be fascinating.

The first guy blogs, is (head?) admin of a popular forum, was a consultant for WotC, is doing other paid consulting work in the games industry and is (according to him) on the path to getting his first game published. He's made, no exaggeration, hundreds of thousands of posts online over the years. Posts in prominent places that are read by a lot of people. The second guy produced a video series for The Escapist. These aren't amateurs. Professional might not be quite the right word, but it's closer to being accurate than claiming either is just a blogger or amateur. Have you spent any time reading through his stuff, particularly the "swine" conspiracy theories? Seen how he interacts with people on forums? Again, as far as I'm arguing this isn't about opinion. It's about how those opinions shape his interaction with other people, predominantly people in the gaming fan community.

That's a totally fair comparison, and gave me pause. But... I think there's a way to find this stuff funny, and share it in a funny way, without being shitty or shaming about it. The biggest key is to just not be judgmental about it. That tumblr seems to be both celebratory and mocking, with some of the mocking coming from people making fun of themselves for things they made as a kid. And some of it is making fun of things that were either intended to be laughed at, or deserve to be laughed at. All links are fine for work, didn't grab any of the porn stuff. I'd also probably ask is it kink, or is it a hobby? I still make fun of people (mostly my friends) for playing Magic. Not because they are nerds, but because they are Magic nerds and half of our game nights just end up dissolving into a Magic night. And that deserves to be made fun of. I make fun of people who throw themselves off buildings and hope that a wingsuit or parachute will work properly. I think there are choices people make which are fine to find funny, and even pick fun at. I'm not going to say that fanart is automatically one, but it's not automatically excluded either.