ewokskick

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Posts posted by ewokskick

  1. Posted

    It was great a lot of cool games to look out for.  Omnibus is crazy fun.  Jenny Leclue was clever nancy drew-esque mystery adventure.  Tacoma looks like a worth follow-up to Gone Home.  Museum of Simulation Technology is one the cleverest puzzle games I've seen in awhile.  Wattam looks like the power of friendship was turned into a bomb and put in Viva Pinata.  There were many others that looked great.  It was the kind of event that makes you exited about games.  A salve to the cynicism of the AAA games industry.

  2. Posted

    Llama is currently one their community casters I think.  So she is hired by the studio for fill in some games.  She really only been doing this for awhile.  She's kind of like lyrical gangster in that way.  I hope she keeps improving.  I felt like she and Lyrical were going to be the next casters people know.  I hope that turns out to be the case.

     

    Akke from Alliance weighed in on the issue and it is pretty great.  Makes me want to root for them: http://www.tv6.se/esport/akke/discussion-about-the-hostpanelcasting-invites

  3. Posted

    Usually the cultural marxism rants have their roots in white supremacist groups.  Their is a stormfront cultural marxism copy pasta that floats around the internet and shows up on places like reddit a lot.  It almost always is presented in response to either feminism or critical race discussions. 

  10. Posted

    When people talk about the male gaze, they sometimes specify "straight male gaze". Is this a specific term with its own distinct meaning, or is it simply an attempt to be more inclusive? It seems like some rather half-assed inclusivity to go out of your way to acknowledge homosexuality, but only in one gender (shouldn't it be "straight male and lesbian female gaze"?), nevermind the failure to acknowledge bisexuality.

     

    I think it's intentionally exclusive of lesbian females because beauty standards for women are dominated by straight men.  I think the reason you specify straight male is to discuss the hegemonic male gaze in a way that doesn't erase the existence of non-straight men.

  11. Posted

    EG will have to keep improving if they want to win this tournament.  For now, I really feel like CDEC are the favorites.  Secret look great so far today, though their pocket Meepo strat has always looked good.  Should be a fun day.

     

    Edit: Game 2 was great.  Cr1t is so impressive.  I remember him as "the honorary North American" in NEL.  Glad to see him land on a top tier team.

  12. Posted

    I'm intrigued you said it has nothing to say. I think it could have said it better in parts but to me the game is pretty clearly exploring motivations behind violence and ways to circumvent the desire in yourself and others to use violence.

     

    It does explore those kind of, but what does it say about it?  It's not even clear to me whether the game thinks violence is bad or not.  I certainly don't think any game with a special genocide run can be said to be against cathartic violence.  It treats violence differently in its systems than most (j)RPGs, but just because it is different doesn't mean it had a cohesive purpose.  I honestly think all it's decisions where based on how to make it quirkier.

     

    I'd be interested to know what exactly you think it's saying because to me it explores these issues just in an awkward circular way.  By the end of the game, I really didn't feel like it had gone anywhere.

  13. Posted

    It seems like EG are getting better as the tournament goes, which is always their way.  I feel like CDEC and EG were in a similar position where both teams had something to prove.  So far I think they did.  EG having to play Monkey Business, LGD, and VP is a total murderers row.  It sort of feels like Secret were gifted and easy advance, but MVP looked okay against C9.

     

    Overall, Monkey Business have been the most impressive team to me.  They seemed to run 5 man push strategies every game, though.   Usually as a tournament goes on you need to show some strategic diversity. It'll be cool to see what else they have cooked up.

  14. Posted

    I really feel like this game was much worse than the sum of its parts.  For all the individual moments of joy, the overall view I have of the game is surprisingly low.  At the end of the day, I don't think the game has anything to say.  Sure, it's clever and I loved it for that, but I don't imagine I'll be think about this game two or three years from now.  I'm just not sure that being irreverent is enough to make something a great game. 

  19. Posted

    I think what Ninety-Three is talking about is that arguments for cultural appropriation at a certain point start to sound like arguments for racial purity. I don't think anyone is arguing the validity of religious or similar imagery being appropriated, it's more when things typically associated with one group being something only that group can have.

     

    I think that misunderstands the argument of cultural appropriation.  Usually it is about protecting a marginalized group against the dominant culture.  So, it's actually more about protecting diversity by keeping certain traditional practices or art away from the hegemonic culture.

     

    That's why the analogy about blue jeans about is pretty obtuse.  In western society, other cultures can't appropriate white culture because they have it forced upon them.  In the U.S. in general, people of color have lessened capacities to change the dominant culture.  Through cultural appropriation though, traditional tribal gear can become a Halloween costume or hip-hop can become about how much someone likes drinking at college.  Cultural appropriation is a problem because it doesn't respect the history or context from which something developed and as result removes the influence of a marginalized group from its own culture.  This doesn't really occur in the other direction.

  20. Posted

    Speaking of AUI, it is starting to look like his new team will be eliminated in the major qualifier.  Baring a crazy comeback they will have fallen just short and Dota will have it's first South American team at a Valve sponsored tournament.

     

    Edit: outcome confirmed, Unknown are the first South American dota team in a major!  That's very exciting for their region.

     

    Edit: I also think they are the first team to ever qualify through the open qualifier where anyone with a team could enter.

  21. Posted

    I wasn't big on Asriel as a character. Flowy is an adequate foil for the character in a true pacifist run, but the weird amalgamation of Flowy and Asriel's 'real self' is weird. Some speculation I've read since has made me think a little better of it but not enough to think he was good.

     

    Though your theory is entirely wrong. The two fan trolls are optional boss fights. Toby Fox intentionally sequestered them from having any impact on the story. I think it's just that Asriel as a character was made to fill a plot need, and that need involves having him take two extremes of a situation in a way that really doesn't mesh so it never rings true for him to be a real character. I would've preferred if Flowey was just Flowey and he was resolved as a character somehow. I think Fox wanted to press the idea that there's good in anyone and value in extending empathy to them, but I think that would've been better done by having Flowey able to change without making it that Asriel was hidden in him.

    I finally bit the bullet and beat the game and then reloaded to get the "real ending." So, I just finished my true pacifist game. I think I agree about the ending kind of betraying the theme about empathy of the game. I honestly loved the game at first. The no-kill mechanic was great. The friendships were amazing. However, I really feel like the more effort you give the game, the worse it gets. A no-kill run just kind flubs around at the end. Then, the "true ending" is both unnecessary (why should there need to be another run for this?) and even less rewarding. Upon reflection, I want to recommend this game to people, but it is the kind of game that is worse the more you care about it. It went from a breezy joy to a total slog. I would have much preferred a straight forward sincere ending than what I got.

    I hate how this game went for being surprising in a lot of great ways to surprising in a lot of bad ways. It might have been a GOTY contender for me, but it became indulgent with its story and the game play became worse and then just became unjustifiable.

  24. Posted

    I literally don't even know how to fight in this game and now it is going to make me do it with like 20hp?  Did the people who like this game do the "non-violent" (but apparently not) route?  I hate games that let you think you can play a certain way then randomly decide you can't.  It's very very annoying and completely ruins my play-through experience.  It's like the game built in an entire system, that was its selling point for me just to lay a big old turd on it at the end.  I honestly don't even want to finish.  Ugh.