chummer

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Everything posted by chummer

  1. I was never cynical about them joining Valve to make the game happen as I assumed there were agreements made in place to make sure it would, but this is all very unfortunate, at least from an outside perspective. Knowing how much some of those folks admired Valve's game, I hope they're enjoying working on some of those things at least.
  2. You always had such lovely animations and neat game ideas. I hope you're doing well.

  3. Beastcast listeners correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Dan replay RDR just before RDR2 in anticipation of its release? I think this is part of what the disappointment is based on. And yeah, I would've loved if they focused on expectations and the open-world genre a bit more to hash out what they felt about the game.
  4. There's an interesting parallel with the conversation about RDR2 during the most disappointing category and the 2008 GOTY when Brad ends up criticizing GTAIV in a way that is echoed by Dan now. Jeff also posits some points for GTAIV that Brad uses for RDR2 (specifically Jeff says that if you have trouble driving the car in GTAIV you're "not doing it right" and that missions being punishing for breaking its boundaries isn't a big deal.) I found it kind of fascinating. Also the 2008 GOTY is way shorter so if it interests you at all to relisten it's not a big commitment.
  5. The Idle Book Club 18: Runaway

    Two years late to this, but I finally got around to reading this and am so glad I did. This is the only Munro collection I've read and hearing that the character of the young woman who is smarter than her circumstances want her to be is a common one for Munro is interesting considering that this collection starts off with a story about a woman who very much isn't that. Carla comes off as timid and pliable in a way that none of the other main characters do (except for maybe the child in "Trespasses"), but the story still manages to convey the same theme of a woman who wants to escape the life she's in. What was really striking to me though (especially as I went through the rest of the book) was that while tragedy intersected a lot in these women's lives, the ending to "Runaway" is sinister in its implications that women are punished for that desire to be free. (I love the writing in those last few paragraphs of the story and the way it invoked a horror movie in my mind.) I have so much more inside me that I want to say about this book: the way it reminds me of early Springsteen albums or that I've been listening a lot to Lorde's "Melodrama" and can't help but find parallels, or the subtle way that class takes a role in some of the stories and define the characters. But I think mentioning that the collection made me want to contextualize it with other art I've experienced and also personal events I've gone through is a clear indicator that it really made an impact on me. What a wonderful book.
  6. WIZARD JAM 7 // Welcome Thread

    WI7ARD JAM
  7. let's keep the horny bird talk going: http://metro.co.uk/2018/02/08/blind-bisexual-goose-stuck-love-triangle-two-swans-dies-aged-40-7296814/
  8. Confused about Social Media...

    i wonder how much of this is due to moblie sites/browsers being terrible for such a long time? even now the way ads can take over a screen make me not want to browse the internet on my phone and stick to an app where and ad can just scroll by.
  9. Confused about Social Media...

    Specifically for building communities and being social: Discord. I've met people through Twitter (I'm doing some projects with folks that I met using a game jam hashtag, for instance) but Twitter is mostly for consumption of funny jokes and news blurbs, I do very little interacting or Tweeting there myself. Tumblr is exclusively for consumption in that I follow folks who re-post cool pictures/screenshots/etc. I only have Insta installed because of my one friend who uses it and there's one writer I follow who couples a picture with a fantastic min-essay every now and then.
  10. I've been a Dan defender in this thread before, but if one moment were to sum up my criticisms of Dan, it was the excitement he expressed at the idea of being a narc during this week's Giant Bombcast.
  11. if y'all don't end up feeling the telecom vibe, some guests might be nice. though i imagine it's probably hard to pitch someone to guest on a podcast about pulling in wandering thoughts about our slowly dying earth. (actually as i wrote this, Will Smith might be good at that.) anywho, i trust y'all to make something good.
  12. Other podcasts

    y'all mind if i wild out? https://twitter.com/fullbright/status/935206684204482560
  13. as a southern CA native, i was also surprised that other places had refrigerators as an expected appliance, but all the points about having to buy a huge new appliance to lug around being silly makes sense. also, i couldn't help but think of this scene from Neo Yokio, but it's someone telling Steve Jobs he doesn't deserve the big Kit Kat:
  14. The question about about "unlimited magic but only in the context of a stage magic show advertised as such" got me thinking about how you could do the most good with that power. I guess you'd have to focus on giving charity shows to folks with terminal illnesses, but what happens when someone notices the sick are healed after your appearances? Will this power stop working if people don't think of you only as a stage magician? Does faith healing count as a magic show? If we're going the 'terrible outcomes' route, would this lead to you having to strategically pick who gets to live so you can keep the illusion going? Could you include as part of your magic show the effect that no one will connect the dots to your appearances and the healing? Unrelated, but before I knew the context, the episode title read like the name of a novel by a mid-century writer about the struggles of living as a minority in America.
  15. Socialism

    well, he's not saying he doesn't want to "dig deeper," just that he'd like it in a more digestible format. audio is good for me too. i learned a lot about rhetoric and Christian apologetics by listening to tapes and playing N64 as a kid. i like the Discourse Collective podcast because they do shows by themes, tackling leftist theory, news, and then analyzing culture. are there any topics that you're specifically interested in @clyde ?
  16. I Had a Random Thought (About Video Games)

    Does Mario finally say "Threat Neutralized" in this X-Com Mario game?
  17. Huh. So according to Wikipedia, Mark Cerny was the developer and programmer of Major Havoc. I guess that dude really does have a history in the industry.
  18. Nick's claim about PB&J sandwiches being nutritious sounds dubious, but I will say that as an adult I enjoy PB&Banana sandwiches every now and then with a bit of honey.
  19. Picked up the game when it went on sale during the anniversary event and I've been loving it! This is only the 3rd multiplayer game that has really captured me in any way, the first two being Team Fortress 2 and then Titanfall. Considering the latter, it's no surprise that I'm in love with Lucio. Skirting around my team while wall riding and getting the vertical drops on enemies and then booping them to their deaths is so much fun! A new development with me is that unlike with those first two games, OW has me going online and learning how to get better. While I'm not really any good still, it's fun feeling myself apply theoretical knowledge into games and watching it work (positioning, countering, team fights). One of the most useful lessons I've learned is 'be flexible' and is has resulted in me trying out new heroes to fill a need and having lots of fun. I'm trying to up my D.VA, Soldier, Sombra, and Reaper play now. I'll throw this out as well: I've got ~100 matches in quick play, but the move to comp has proved much more enjoyable. I'm just below silver, but I've had moments in most all my recent games where I just want to yell because the tension is so good. I've also gotten into the habit of turning off voice and chat and that's been real helpful as well.
  20. Masculinity

    As I'm sure a lot of you have heard, Nick Robinson is being called out for sexually harassing folks. This thread gives a good summary of this recent instant of events. One of the topics that has come up and feels relevant to this thread is that of the 'softboy.' Reyturner linked this article describing the behavior of a softboy, but for those who don't know, a softboy is a man who presents a non-threatening masculinity by way of thoughtfulness, kindness, and vulnerability that is disingenuous. There's a lot of good, nuanced conversation about softness and softboys that I spotted on Twitter that I'll link here for y'all to think about. This one defends the value of 'softness' for men. Zolani also brought up how the idea of 'softness' intersects with race. This aspect of the broader discussion is the one that has made me reflect the most because I'm someone who was been called 'soft'- both as an insult and a compliment- but this is absolutely a conversation about abuse and how men take advantage of various systems (the inclination to not believe woman victims, the threat of losing careers) to hurt others. I'm glad Polygon seems to recognize that Nick used the position they gave him as a tool for abuse and hopefully this leads to a just and productive resolution.