Duncan

It's what I do. Okay, but seriously, what the hell is up with that picture? What happened to the guy from Manhunt's jaw?

Oh yeah, I saw this! It's kind of impressive at first... and then not really. The characters aren't that expressive - lip synching is good, but their bodies move very stiffly and awkwardly and the faces are just blank. It is interesting to watch, and it's a nice concept, but it doesn't especially work. I love that scene though.

Yeah, taste is definitely a big reason. Taste doesn't necessarily imply that the 'big money market' thinks that Psychonauts is necessarily a bad game, though, just something they're uninterested in. Twilo seemed to be saying in his earlier posts that people weren't buying Psychonauts because it wasn't that good, which I disagree with. (er, both parts of that sentence, but most importantly that its alleged not-good-ness is a reason why people aren't buying it.) Ah, okay, I get what you mean now.

Well, yes, but change 'piece of shit' to 'not that good' and my point still stands.

I'm not sure why you're bringing this up other than to get it in that you didn't like Psychonauts. There's really nothing to suggest to prospective buyers that Psychonauts is a bad game, pretty much all the reviews suggest the exact opposite. There are plenty of reasons why it's not selling, but that it's a piece of shit I don't think is one of them.

Yeah, this is interesting. With the the fan who wears the t-shirt of the talented-yet-fortunately-obscure band, I think a major motivation is superiority. Someone sees the t-shirt and has no idea what that's about, and the fan gets to act a little smug because he's one of the select few who knows about this great band, like an "oh, if only you knew" type of thing. He gets the feeling that everyone's looking at this t-shirt and thinking he must know something that they don't. I don't think I'm explaining myself very well, but whatever. But then when this band gets super popular and this guy is still wearing the t-shirt, everyone knows what it means now. The whole thrill of being in some isolated pop culture bubble is gone, and now people don't know that this guy was one of the first people into this band back when they were edgy and undiscovered. Now they just think he's on the bandwagon and he only likes them now that they're popular. So I think that in some cases the fan hangs up the shirt not because he can't like what's popular, which is the usual stereotype, but instead because he doesn't want people to think that he's shallow and only likes what's popular.

I feel like I can't properly respond to this thread (possibly because you cover many topics). I don't know. Even though this is a thread about comedy and I guess then the appropriate response would be something sort of quietly funny which cuts to the heart of the issue, it does demand a certain sincerity and that's not something I'm good at. Not that I can't be honest, because I pretty much always am, but I don't think I've ever been able to write or say something which is really meaningful or thought-provoking. And considering I am an almost-writer, I feel like that really ought to be something I should do. Except it's much easier to be funny, even if it's not working. I don't know why, well, I mean, if you get past the men can't express emotions blah blah blah thing, I don't know. I feel like most sentiments that one would typically express in any given social situation are much better when they're funny. Does that make sense? I don't know. Even if it's that kind of quiet funny which doesn't actually make you laugh the sentiment still means something even though it's a joke. I think when I complement someone or ask someone out or anything along those lines it goes over much better when it's funny than if it was earnest. Actually I always do that by self-deprecating myself to the max. I guess you have to laugh at yourself? I realise now that I've never really been in any deadly serious situations in which humour is really inappropriate and when sincerity is called for. I hope I would still be effective and helpful but I don't really know. I also don't know how this relates to your post (essay?) to be honest. The parts about comedy (and human condition maybe?) stuck with me the most and of course I started thinking about that in relation to myself, because I am thoroughly neurotic. Should this really be in Site Feedback? Also, despite all the shit I was proclaiming earlier in this post, this turned out remarkably unfunny.

I did persuade my brother to get the PS2 version but he is understandably a little dissuaded by the fact that no one has any idea when the PAL version will be released.

argh edit: I news posted this. thanks for the heads up.

But you're using... oh, wait, no I see. No, I get it.

I just found out that my stepbrother was four minutes away from being on one of those trains. Man. It is insane how close you can come to shit like this. Really glad everyone here's okay.

I did manage to watch it but have no idea what I just saw.

Yeah, I'm not denying it's incredibly odd, but I actually did buy my copy from Gamesman about a month ago. I guess they must have imported it, though I have no idea if that's true.

OH MY GOD it has, why doesn't anyone listen to me?

This is a follow-up thread. The second semester started today, and already I am pretty beat, because this is a harder, stronger, faster semester. I now have 15 hours in class as opposed to 10 last time. So this is a series of disjointed observations, which will be jarring, I know, because usually I am so goddamn eloquent. WARNING: I just read over this and this post contains absolutely nothing of value UNLESS you are for some nonsense reason interested in me personally or want a nostalgic kickback to college. Well, fuck it, the forums need more posts anyway. The last time I did this I mentioned that my former high school rival is now my college rival. This either pleases or infuriates me, quite obviously depending on whether or not I am winning. Last semester we only had English Lit together, this time we have two classes. So clearly I will have to step it up a little bit, mostly because I am much better at English than these other two subjects. (I ditched English this time around, like way to go ditching your best subject. Way to plan for the future.) I kept a close eye on that English Lit scorecard. There were two essays and an exam. First essay we drew with a B+ each. Second essay, I was pretty elated that I got an A, she got a fucking A+. Mother of god. I have no idea how she did in that exam. I apparently did pretty well, my overall mark for the course was an A-. I asked her how she did but she was evasive. I have to find out. I am clearly obsessed with this. I find it interesting that I am friends with her. Our entire relationship is built on competetive one-upsmanship. And yet, we are friends and actually kind of like each other despite the fact that when I am around her I usually get a huge ego surge and a furious desire to win. On that same topic, I also know a guy who I really dislike, and he knows that and tries to piss me off in retaliation. However, while neither of us like the other, we somehow have an amicable friendship that is predicated on hate. DORM UPDATE: Still sucks. I am vaguely disappointed that philosophy turned out to be How To Be An Argumentative, Pedantic Asshole 101. Really glad that I have a different History lecturer this time around; the last one was a smug bastard who admitted that he designed assignments to piss us off and teach us that History is hard. Also really glad that I have settled into the overachieving slacker position, where I don't actually pay tons of attention in classes, don't take the subject totally seriously, generally put in much less time than I am supposed to AND YET rally at the last minute and get actually pretty good grades. Anyway, screw all that. The only requirement for my happiness this semester was that this girl I have a crush on be in at least one of my classes. Fortunately, that is the case.

I don't believe that will happen ever.

Thanks, buddy! Such an abuse of spoiler space.

Well, yeah, that is fairly plausible. The public reading-out-grades bit seems a little shitty. I think that happened to me a few times at high school, but the teachers generally gave you the option of not having your grade read out. Of course, no one actually asked, but still. I don't think I'd ever compete with an actual good friend, because that's pretty lame. With this current situation I kind of hated her a little at first, but grew to like her over time. That'd probably be reversed if I started it with a good friend. I don't think she's dumb so much... I think the motivation might have been spite, actually. She worked incredibly hard, you see. And she gets pissed when people do less work than her and yet yield better results. I'm actually not a sophomore, still first year. And actually I'm not American either, so I'm probably never going to be called a sophomore or a freshman ever. (What's third year? I don't think I know this one.) Haven't decided on a major yet, I'm kind of trying to put that off as long as I can. It definitely won't be English, though.

Oh man yeah. I remember being really bad at it.

Yeah, I was gonna say... Well, that's true. However, have you ever known the situation that Rodi's describing to actually play out in real life rather than in serialised television? I don't think need to, I hope I'm not that obsessed about this. I kind of like to, which is a different thing. The whole 'competition' thing actually started in high school, where she was in my English and Journalism classes. She was, I'm pretty sure, at the top of every class she was in and got ridiculously good grades. For a number of reasons, this was difficult to take. For one thing, her work often wasn't actually that good. For another, she kind of had an attitude about it. And mostly because this was my last year of high school and up to this point I really didn't have anything to show for it, I figured I'd try and take her down. (It didn't work completely.) Admittedly, that whole motivation is gone now. And I'm not working nearly as hard in this rivalry as I used to. I'm only interested at all because she's still in my classes and doing really well. Well, yeah, maybe that's true. However, this is kind of the only motivation I have.

That's very romantic but somehow I don't see it.

Man, of all the topics you could have doubleposted, why'd it have to be one so creepy?

Bloodrayne: The Movie!! She's driven by revenge! ALSO ALSO: This guy?!

I seriously hate the 'Best Voice Performance' category. Because it's not that, it's 'Best Voice Performance by a Celebrity'. I know it's G4, but as an overview of the past year's highlights in voice acting, this is a fucking joke. (Carmen Electra? What?) Nominating celebrities doesn't even make a ton of sense, anyway, because celebrities don't get hired to be a voice actor, they get hired to sound like themselves. It angers me so much how the Game Industry and things like G4 are obsessed with Celebrities in Games, like that's the only thing that can give video games any sense of legitimacy. And especially with the recent SAG/AFTRA thing, it ultimately works against them, because despite having no fucking clue how the game industry works, the various actor's guilds can see how much publishers and developers rely upon having stars on board. And they can really easily exploit that. So, yeah, it really pisses me off to see games slowly morph into Hollywood's Little Brother, through crap like the Spike TV Video Game Whatever Awards and 'Best Voice Performance - Male: Def Jam Fight for NY – Snoop Dogg (Electronic Arts)'. It's just so retarded. Thanks a lot, you guys.

...is, as it turns out, seriously insane, but also hilarious. This article is like a week old, but, oh man. The good parts: Just the very image of Saddam Hussein grinning, making a 'spanking gesture', quite possibly winking, then going back to DOING THE DISHES is the most insane experience I've had all week.