Vainamoinen

Try a PNG instead of a JPG?

I should really do @Apple Cider's 365 day challenge. Maybe my art would get anywhere. Meanwhile, here's some fan art sketch that I drew a few months ago. It's for a little game due to come out in February. Meant to be transformed into full fledged art, but... well, that never happened.

Do we at least get an update as to what the whole thing was about?

144k followers on twitter (92% real) aren't chicken feed though. Then again, gamergate supporters are running amok spreading the news of 'censorship' and that White House petition still isn't at 1.6%. As a Kickstarter, the developers would have taken that one offline yesterday. /edit: All right, I'll put this next Yiannopoulos twitter provocation in spoiler tags, because it might just be unbearable to some. How could this guy possibly be any more disgusting?

Any news about Humble DRM free or GOG releases?

All right, I take it back. Still, I really don't want to know a world in which a Milo Yiannopoulos has that kind of reach and popularity.

In addition to using harassment as the sole rhetoric register, Milo Yiannopoulos is just about the most useless person in this entire debate. He knows nothing about any of the scientific faculties concerned, even less about video games, and still he's trying to be a rock star for gamergate supporters. I'm sure he'd be delighted at the comparison, but to me he seems like a Kim Kardashian wannabe, known for nothing but social media presence, latching on to actual celebrities, and of course, for having being a huge ass. Losing twitter verification seems to be his ultimate Yiannopoulocalypse. Oh wondrous thing, Breitbart cybertech knows no other topic than this "declaration of war on conservative media". And the Milo fans have their White House petition in place. The success of this petition, which as of now steadily approaches 1.6% of needed votes, may give us some insight into how much of a "Year of Milo" we can expect in 2016.

/edit: spoiler tags removed after the week eventually became the correct one. A Bug's Life (1998) It must have been 15 years since I last watched that. In fact, I confused it with Antz. Pixar is really making the most out of their 90s limitations here, but it's obvious how they had chosen about the most difficult subject matter: nature and all its iregular forms and textures. The ants themselves, hence, are far too similar to each other. I had a difficult time finding them relatable. The circus troupe, however, I instantly liked for their diversity. It's basically the plot of ¡Three Amigos! (or Galaxy Quest, yet that was one year after A Bug's Life). Which isn't a problem, good plots can be reused for more good films. However, by the movie's mid mark, Pixar executes that plot far less skillfully. By rescuing Dot from a far greater enemy than the grasshoppers could ever be, the circus bugs already prove their selfless heroism to themselves as well as their capability in battle to the ants. The revelation afterwards that they're 'just' circus bugs – that's not the right kind of impact, frankly. The benevolent ant monarchy and the antsy spirit of cooperation is a welcome deviation from the mob mentality of the toys in Pixar's first movie. Although you definitely expect it, Flik never faces any kind of punishment for his deeds. He's not imprisoned, he's sent on a mission to help the ants. He's not sent to exile, Atta just "wants him to leave". And no kind of status difference is really made among the ants, which is why Flik gets to cuddle with the princess kid and hit on the future queen. Interesting. There's a a great "Fire & Water" finale, and I didn't even think of it as technologically backwards in any way. This was OK, and no trips to the Uncanny Valley have occurred.

Oh. I see. I guess that has to hurt Milo's ego a whole lot, losing that. CENSORSHIP! And all that jazz. If we're talking about clear cut harassers, like Milo Yiannopoulos, it's certainly difficult to maintain a calm and reasoned discussion. But I guess we're generally also lacking a clear framework, clear modes of identifying harassment or abuse. That may change this year.

I don't have the full context because I purposefully don't know much about twitter, so would someone explain what "unverifying" even MEANS? #neverforgetfeminismiscancer

re. abuse, trolling, harassment: Yes, 2016 is the year we get to the bottom of it even if we have to open and eat ALL the cans of worms. I'll be one of the first buyers of Zoë's book (which will of course only arrive over here weeks and weeks later), yet I'm a bit sad that all that, the entire debate over it, will at first be limited to those few people reading the publication. Then again, we could make a nice book club in here.

Blip

Shhhh-shhh. Inside Out is April stuff.

An example of men being discriminated against, one I keep seeing as an MRA argument, is custody battles. Yet the reason for women getting custody far more frequently (besides, of course, toxic masculinity ) likely is the courts' traditional stereotypical view of the women as the mother figure. And that's the kind of role feminism rejects as a universal stereotype. Feministfrequency recently published a video for men – about educating yourself and helping feminism. I found it fairly well made, though of course gamergate supporters burst in flames over one of Sarkeesian's editors talking in this one, a person they've taken a particular dislike to. I've been discussing the content of that video in another forum, with particular focus on the part where the presenter talks about how men definitely suffer from the patriarchial structure as well, yet are generally not systemically opressed. Half a dozen people understood that point very well... ....and that one guy suddenly felt all insulted because "not all men" are in a position of power and "not all men" interrupt conversations as a means to establish dominance. /edit: The Star Wars issue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4hMq6rFpk0&feature=youtu.be

Bad enough, from what I've heard, that I won't touch it. I guess had I ever played the first game, I wouldn't have given the second a chance. And a lot of reviewers who played the first instalment say exactly this. Evoland I bullshit, Evoland II solid gold. Despite coming up with a halfway coherent time travel story, the game is still a parody and maybe rip off of other games, but the sheer number of games emulated/parodied and the nostalgia thunderstorms are well worth the purchase. The first part, I guess, was a lackluster Zelda clone. The second incorporates not only 4 time zones (with a GameBoy aestetic for the most distant past and NES (past) SNES (present) and a modern console 3D look (future)), but dozens of game mechanics – with Final Fantasy/Zelda/Secret of Mana at its core, the game also features sequences with the game mechanics of e.g. Pong, Snake, Space Invaders, Mega Man, Bomberman, Mario, Chrono Trigger, Bahamut Lagoon, Street Fighter, Double Dragon, Raiden, Guitar Hero or Hearthstone. I started my second run through the game yesterday.

Watched it yesterday. I personally haven't watched Toy Story (1) a lot since it came out, and possibly only saw it once before – in the theatre, when I was 17. I was even surprised when I saw Joss Whedon mentioned as a writer. I still like the movie, but wow I don't think it aged well. The animation seems so dated and artificial. Which kind of works for the slick lines of a Buzz Lightyear, but less so for rugged little Cowboy Woody. Hellooo uncanny valley. I found the movie's logic to be much more flawed than what Patrick suggested. The concepts of death and the 'rules' of toydom appear made up on the spot. When Buzz falls out of the window, the toy crowd calls Woody a murderer immediately, but still calls out for Buzz and tries to rescue him, with no doubt that he's still alive. When Woody waves Buzz' arm around, the toys are disgusted to the point of vomiting, yet they should be well aware that toys can be reassembled (especially Mr. Potato Head). The cheery lynch mob mentality of Potato Head & cie. near the end of the movie seemed especially crappy to me. It's quite frankly not a team I'd like to return to if I were Woody. The second flaw that irked me somewhat is that Woody makes light of breaking what must be the cardinal rule of toydom. In all situations before, when under observation by humans, a toy must never move even if he/she is utterly crushed, mutilated, exploded or whatever. But, hey, let's just teach this kid here a little lesson. I've watched the third movie a few days ago, and won't go into too much detail here, but from the perspective of toy life logic and consistent toy morality, this movie was sooo much better than that first one. This movie series seems to improve with each new installment... which is interesting as usually, the opposite is the case.

I can't see that picture, but I have a pretty clear idea of what it's about. (If I'm correct – this Eric Kain guy... haven't we thought of him as a gamergate supporter a year back...?)

[off topic] At this time, Valve could basically hand out DRM free .exe installers without even asking their business clients, and I wouldn't rule out they'll do it one day. Which wouldn't solve, but indeed point at the real problem, i.e. Valve's power, market influence, console like distribution monopoly for the PC platform and the fact that this monopoly is maintained and strengthened as long as Valve continues to get exclusive content handed on a silver platter, e.g. through "indie"=dependie developers (and factually through Early Access). The call for "DRM free" today may basically just mean "not distributed exclusively via Steam". This is the way the term is e.g. used in Kickstarter campaigns (KS devs eventually distributing "DRM free via Steam" thankfully still face cruxification by their backers). Valve makes things very convenient for developers, which is great, but a benevolent monopoly is still a monopoly while real competition among distributors has once been THE argument for PC games. As to the reasons why I "still refuse to install Steam", maybe watch . He's basically talking about DLC, microtransactions and similar crap, but the reasons why he just won't shut up about those things even after they've been around for years and generally accepted sound very similar to the reasons for my continued protest. [/off topic]

Which is why I couldn't even insinuate a "Valve dependie" focus of mentioned PC games.

You're right. Maybe I just registered the mentions of MGSV, Witcher 3 and Fallout4, then searched in vain for the games I mentioned.

My games are limited by favoring adventure games, and, most of all, by only buying PC DRM/Steam free. However, I've been blessed with a lot of satisfying experiences 2015. I'm leaving out the ongoing episodic Dreamfall Chapters, because it started in 2014; but with three out of five episodes released in 2015, it definitely kept giving this last year. Not grading those on a scale, but here are my personal Secret Outsider GotYs 2015. With the AAA fest going on here, you may even see new stuff (edit: I just checked and it seems like NONE of these games were even mentioned in here. WTF? Or did I just blink??). Abe's Odyssey New & Tasty Never played the original. Well, I had a PSX demo back then, so I've experienced the general concept. But this one looked so good and played so smoothly, I even managed the patience to save 100% Mudokons. With the expanded life option the game so generously included. And now I'm an Oddworld fan. Better late than never. And I see this is a 2014 game, but I only got it last year... Technobabylon As much as I'm looking forward to Thimbleweed Park, I'm not a pixel enthusiast. Still I love a good cyberpunky sci-fi story and a fitting 1980s style soundtrack to go with it. Wadjet Eye keeps delivering, and I especially like that Dave Gilbert doesn't want to exploit his successfully created IPs. His stories have beginning, middle and end and are in no need to be continued. Technobabylon hit all the right buttons, and looked into the future of the internet without slapping all too obvious negative connotations on it. Evoland II Bought on a whim, and it's a whim I would advise everyone to sport. Well, everyone who shares a console past, owned a NES and/or SuperNES and especially favors Zelda and Chrono Trigger. If you poured those two games in a mixer and added a heap of spices from all over video game history, you'd have Evoland II. It's incredibly varied and insists on challenging you: Sometimes you get the impression that you are supposed to be a master at two dozen historic video games just to play this game (blood and sweat during the Street Fighter sequence, I tell you). I finished rather satisfied, but with a mere 92% of secrets found and mini-game challenges completed. Time well spent.

Whooo-hooo! Got a Pixar Blu Ray collection for Christmas. :) Watched Toy Story 3 and Wall-E already, and will continue.

That could well be. There have been calls to abandon the term 'trolling' altogether for that reason – IIRC, Zoe Quinn's among them. If all trolling is abuse, the word trolling is nothing but a trivializing euphemism that we may have to abandon. I'm not yet sure that's the conclusion to draw. I'm thinking more of a spectrum that ranges from the actually harmless via clear cut yet legal abuse to the completely illegal. "Trolling" may encompass all of that, and I guess individual definitions vary from person to person (and consequently, from dictionary to dictionary).

"Trolling" as in ridicule, memeification and mocking a debate – well, it's something that happens in this thread as well, something that I do quite often. What I wish for 2016, and what's likely to emerge as we've come so far, is a discussion of and clearer guidelines where 'trolling' becomes 'abuse'.

I agree that this is very difficult, and it's great that you didn't go with mere black or white versions of these conversations here. There's a very flexible slider between "trolling"/mockery/abuse and a good faith argument. And even if at any given moment of the conversation, for every participant, you correctly assess a percentage value of sincerity, it's still a matter of personal patience to decide what percentage is sufficient for you to keep up the conversation. I doubt that any halfway sensible sincerity values do pop up in chan forums though.