Bjorn

That is all just fantastic!

There have been similar conversations on here before, one a few months ago about Woody Allen. I recognize that there are lots of people with shitty ideas, opinions and beliefs. There are people of whose work I am deeply fond of who have said or done some really questionable bullshit. But I also don't expect people to react in an entirely rational way about these subjects. I don't really think that most people are capable of completely rational thought and action a majority of the time, we just like to pretend we are. I personally have what can only be called an emotional reaction to seeing Cruise. Both my wife and kid are dyslexic and I've witnessed the kind of bullshit they have both gone through at times because of something completely out of their control. I have no patience for people who talk the kind of bullshit that Cruise has about a subject that I care a lot about. So it's not a kind of rational, thought out reaction. I see Cruise, and BOOM, I think what a sad, crazy shithead he is. There's no in-between thinking state between those two things. The Matthew Broderick example is a poor one, if only because we can all sympathize with having made a mistake driving and most of us are super thankful that it was never at that one moment in time that resulted in tragedy. That's a pretty radically different thing than saying or doing a series of stupid things over an extended amount of time. A better example might be Mel Gibson (although that still boils mostly down to a couple of events). I've watched a couple of Gibson's movies since his drunken anti-Semitic breakdown. He doesn't elicit that same kind of reaction from me. Sure, I care about anti-Semitism, but it doesn't carry that emotional, personal closeness for me that other issues do. But I can see how it would for others, and how someone else could have that same level of personal disgust when Gibson walks on screen, how their relationship with Judaism or anti-Semitic bullshit could just always pop up front and center when they see him. For most people, there is probably something bad enough, something bullshit enough that it would forever taint an actor for them. It's just where that personal line is, or what that personal issue is for each person. I hit mine with Cruise. About the only two celebrities I can think of that elicit that reaction from me are Cruise and Orson Scott Card. And with both of those, it's less about one moment and more about a years long effort to alienate people like me, who ought to be fans of their work. Slightly related (via anti-Semitic rants and Mel Gibson) it turns out Gary Oldman might be a grade A asshole (Playboy interview, so NSFW technically). Which is a shame. But I guess I'll just have to keep liking the movies he hates, just to spite him.

Ooo, the community choice includes Rayman: Legends for $10. I hope that one wins next. I've not heard good things about the Space Hulk game. RPS destroyed it when it was released.

So I didn't realize that Valiant Hearts (the WW1 thingie) was actually coming out so quickly. It drops tomorrow, and the first reviews are popping up now. I generally trust Ludwig at Joystiq's opinion on stuff, and he came away from it impressed. I half expected this game to be a disaster.

Realistically, Scientology probably only has a membership in the low 10s of thousands, so no, it's not like it has some massive impact. And Cruise's rants over the years (particularly the one about psychology and anti-depressants) probably did as much harm to Scientology as anything else has, because of how clearly crazy and off-base it was. So it's certainly debatable how much actual harm or evil Cruise himself has caused. But, for me personally, those elements of Cruise have ruined him as an actor for me. Just seeing him in a movie kicks me out of it, as I don't see the character he is playing. I see a sad, crazy man who says evil things. I was really looking forward to Edge of Tomorrow until I learned he was in it.

I think he's crazy because he believes in Scientology, and I think he's evil for advocating that Scientology can "cure" dyslexia and mental illness. It's the same boat that I put people like Jenny McCarthy in for her anti-vaccine advocacy. Once someone starts preaching about how their personal religious belief can solve real medical issues, I think they've crossed the line into a kind of evil. (Not to imply McCarthy has a religious component to her beliefs, she's just evil and crazy all on her own). Scientology causes actual harm to people, and Cruise has defended and advocated for it for years. And the harm that is most likely to be caused by bullshit insane religions is usually to kids, who can't defend themselves from their parents' crazy beliefs. So yeah, fuck Tom Cruise and his evil beliefs.

I'd be fascinated to hear more of that line of reasoning. It makes sense, no one ever gets irrationally angry because a fan wants to imagine some crazy fight scene, but I've been lots of people get mad at "shipping" conversations for no reason at all. Like, not mad about the combinations, but just mad that people are talking about it at all.

Tom Cruise mostly ruins movies for me now. I can't see him without thinking about how batshit evil and crazy he's become, which kills any sense of immersion in the movie.

Trading is a massive pain in the ass. Buying and selling couldn't be faster and easier.

It's getting train wreckier before it gets better:

Holy crap, there are "steal" tokens that let you take points from another team, and people are actually buying these things on the market. I had wondered what it was that took points from the team. That's the dumbest waste of money I've yet seen on the Steam market. I wonder if Valve still has an in-house economist, and what his take on these things is. Edit: Answer to my own question, probably not, since he hasn't updated his blog in almost 2 years.

I get a strong sense of deja-vu from this post...it's like I just saw it somewhere...

And I bought Battleblock yesterday for $3.74. Not that it matters, I like The Behemoth and would feel bad if I bought this at the wrong price (like I did when I got Don't Starve in a similar deal last year).

As far as the gross factor on the Steam stuff goes, I'd also be super interested in how much money is going to small devs from card and item sales, whether it represents a worthwhile addition to their income or not. There are millions card sales per day going on during the Steam Sale (which I'm sure makes a massive bump in card sales). Even at just one or two pennies per sale, that's hundreds of thousands in extra revenue for devs every day of the sale. But as far as I know, no one has come out and discussed what joining in the card program has meant for them financially. I've assumed that Valve doesn't let them disclose that data as part of the deal of being in the program, otherwise by now someone would have posted something about it. Of course there are ways to extract that money, which goes down its own rabbit-hole. And the minimum level only applies to getting free cards from voting every 8 hours, not for game drops or anything.

Ermahgawd, those tokens sell for $3.50-$5.00. People r dum. I'd somewhat argue against your statement that the store is a free-to-play game though, at least as far as we understand f2p games. F2P games don't typically empower customers to make money, and the Steam design is such that plenty of people have made a net profit since cards were introduced. If you are savvy and poor, Steam will let you pick up a few games a year at no cost. That's fucking cool, and the opposite of gross. It's closer to player friendly slot machine, though I think it could tip over the line into gross pretty easily. Even the sale basically lets people buy one game for "free", so long as you meet the minimum level threshold to get free cards. At the average price (which is dropping over time), you can make $4-$6 just from selling the summer cards, which is easily enough to buy one of the big discounted games. Now the level threshold is creeping up every sale. Last sale it was Level 5, now it's level 8. At some point, if that keeps going up, it's going to push out the people who could most benefit from free cards and then I'd agree that we're pushing into gross territory. I had to craft a couple of badges on my wife's account to get her above the threshold this sale, but the cost of doing that was low enough that the free cards more than cover it.

And apparently some members are heading into "Maybe we should see other people, just to try it out. No, I'm totally not breaking up with you, I just wonder if we can know what love is if we've only ever loved each other" territory.

They announced how co-op will work in Rebirth, which is the feature I'm most excited about. 2P gets a flying baby and takes one a heart from player one when it spawns, and can take an additional heart at will as long as player one has enough health. So basically a shared health pool. The baby gets all the passive upgrades that player one has, but the damage for both players is slightly reduced as long as the baby is active. The baby can be despawned to return its health to Player 1. Still no release date, bastards! Just sometime this year.

Played through Papo & Yo this afternoon. Fuck that is a depressing game. The game part isn't very good, puzzles ranging from boring to just okay. But I love the design, ascetic, story and everything else it has going on.

The Dragon King Greataxe is probably my favorite weapon in the game.

Should I wait to buy Metro Last Light Redux when it comes out, or just grab the mundane version now for cheap? I can't imagine the new version is going to be all that improved.

So the latest Tropes vs Women is a straight up gut punch. I'm kinda shocked at the level of misogyny that is empowered in games that I have quite enjoyed, and in some cases haven't even been aware of the bullshit that could be done in game.

I don't think there's anything particularly unethical about the Steam sale, or the card promotions or anything. I just find their events to be getting less interesting. Cards are neat solely because they give me money to spend on games, but the whole meta-game-promotion thing is just...meh. I'd like to see something a bit more inspired and fun.

Green! Yeah, Purple blew it away Day 1. Now Red, who was last on Day 1, is the clear winner. I wonder if they intentionally put people in the losing teams to boost the numbers and have a chance at some competition. This is one of the dumber things I've seen them do with the sales.

Logged into Steam to vote, and realized there is this whole team/competition thing about which I have absolutely no idea what it is, how it works or anything. Bought Shadowrun, pretty happy that more than a day into the sale I've only bought one thing.

Yeah, inventory is a bit of a nightmare in it. If you ever decide to dip back in, I'd suggest taking a look at the mods for it. My wife would likely refuse to play at all if she couldn't mod the inventory and stuff to make it a little friendlier (it's still not perfect, but there are some things that make it better). If nothing else, having a larger inventory and being able to carry multiple backpacks lets you organize everything better.