SecretAsianMan

The ability to give people nicknames is something I'm really thankful for, especially around Halloween/Christmas when everyone becomes "Spooky" this or "Xmas" that.

Payday's tone and presentation definitely make it a caricature rather than a commentary. And I do give the game credit for things like actually punishing you for killing civilians, both verbally and mechanically. I just can't help feeling really weird about it while I'm tying up hostages and shooting SWAT officers in the head. It's still fun in spite of all this, which just adds to the level of discomfort for me. Not enough that I want to stop, but I do kind of wish the game had a different presentation so I could just enjoy it more.

My two categories consist of the favorites list (ie games I am currently or frequently play) and everything else. My friends list on the other hand has several categories, mostly grouped by how I am familiar with said person.

Tipping is the worst thing and I hate it. I usually start at about 15-20% as a baseline and adjust from there based on factors such as how busy is the restaurant. I think that informing a server before you pay that you plan to tip a certain percent would mostly not change their behavior and if it does they're probably not a very good server to start with.

This was posted while I was typing my other response. I'm not really familiar with Cara Ellison's work, but that's not a slight against her. Honestly I'm familiar with no one's work because I don't read a lot of things. I don't pay attention to individuals, just topics. So I don't know firsthand how qualified she is (though I'm more than willing to believe that she is) and it's disappointing to hear that she didn't get hired if all that is true. But again, I don't condemn GB because there are a lot of things to consider. I'm certainly disappointed though.

I'm sure there are women out there who are probably qualified. But without knowing more about the circumstances and the process they went through, I'm not willing to crucify them because of one (albeit very important) issue out of several that one could raise about the whole thing. Maybe they needed to fill those positions now and waiting wasn't a viable option. Maybe they're huge assholes. Maybe both. What I'm saying is that unless told otherwise, I like to think that they didn't just outright reject the notion of hiring a woman because she was a woman. All that said, I DO think it's totally fair to call them out on it. I don't think they're completely blameless. People are right to tell them that they should have tried harder or to should have included more diversity. GB should be aware of these issues.

I don't think that GB deserves to be thrown under the bus just yet (not that I'm accusing anyone here of doing that). There are a lot of things to consider when making decisions like that and I'd like to give the group at GB the benefit of the doubt in this instance. Would I have preferred a more diverse hiring? Absolutely. Do I think they're terrible people for not doing it? No. If someone proves to me that they flat out rejected or denied considering any qualified woman, then I'll be upset. But I can't blame them for thinking "these two people are talented and will improve our company, we should hire them".

I am full of shame! Well, I'm full of something at any rate.

I picked up Payday 2 during the Steam sale and while I'm playing it I can't get this topic out of my mind. It's not exactly the same because you only play from the criminal side and the police are exaggerated quite heavily (including having Sam Fisher type units that can cloak and take you out with one hit). But at it's core its a literal cops vs robbers game where you kill hundreds upon hundreds of (admittedly very stupid) cops. A couple people have mentioned Payday before in this thread, mostly citing how it presents itself more like a movie than anything to be taken seriously, which is accurate. The gameplay itself is mostly fun (I have issues with it I won't get into here) but I find the theme to be somewhat troubling on my conscience. I don't know where I'm going with this thought.

I'm one of the most apolitical people you'll meet and couldn't tell the difference between Left and Right to save my life. I kind of hate it all equally. I just know what I think and believe. That said, I might be like a less extreme version of Twig's friend. I'm not a gun nut. I don't even own a gun (though I would like to). But I enjoy shooting them for sport (at targets, not hunting) and as an engineer find them mechanically fascinating. I don't think they should be outlawed but I'm also a rational enough person that I see the need for gun control. I also support most social issues and find the SCOTUS ruling to be pretty terrible in a lot of ways. I have no idea where the places me on the political spectrum and frankly I don't care. That was an extremely self-centered post about nothing really. Please ignore it and continue on with actual important discussion. Edit: And on a new page too. Perfect. I'll just leave now.

I honestly don't get that game. I played it on my 3DS. I beat it. Then I immediately forgot about it. Not saying it's bad, but I didn't find it compelling in any way. It was the very definition of "okay" for me. Didn't do anything wrong, but it didn't do anything memorable either. I'm probably in the minority when I say this, which is fine.

I use it. I picked it up about a day after getting the game because I always look for stuff like this with new games. The download links seemed a bit shady, but it passed several virus and malware scans and so far I'm having no problems. I keep forgetting that other people don't have it by default and am surprised that they keep running back to check on the drill before I remember they don't have a timer on the screen. One thing I'm not sure about is occasionally my health indicator will have a glowing yellow ring in it. I think it's some of my skills being activated in certain conditions (like the one that gives me additional damage/resist when there are 3 or more enemies around me) but I'm not positive. I do like the extra info the HUD presents though, especially the way it only shows up when it becomes relevant.

That's probably a good idea. The game is really bad about informing you how its systems work. I don't need a handholding tutorial about how to aim and shoot, but there are a lot of mechanics at play in this game and a little more information would have been nice.

This pretty accurately describes me as well. Are people sticking to one skill tree or spreading it around? I have the majority of my points in Enforcer but I'm starting to get some of the other ones as well. My current level is in the mid 20s so I don't have a ton of points to throw around yet.

I set myself a limit of $20 total and no individual game over $10, which I stuck to despite being EXTREMELY tempted by Wolfenstein when it hit 50% off. My only purchases were Jazzpunk (gift for someone else) Castle Crashers/BattleBlock Theater bundle Payday 2 (and some DLC) I'm with you. That game really didn't do anything for me.

I grabbed it as well and would be up for some heists. I should warn anyone who plays with me, I'm terrible at stealth (in any game) so expect things to inevitably go loud if I'm around.

The majority of my actual usernames in places is SecretAsianManz because it was the first variation that wasn't taken on Xbox Live and Steam and at this point I default to using it everywhere because I assume that normal version will be taken. What really bugs me about Steam is that you can change your name without changing your actual ID. In practice I like that because it means I don't have to jump through a million hoops if I want to be called something else, but it also means the other guy has my name and isn't even USING it.

Wolfenstein is down to 50% off today. Really tempted but it's still out of my budget for the moment. Edit: Yay redundancy

I had a friend in college who had a small family of sugar gliders. One week during the summer he went out of town and asked me to take care of them. Since I lived alone at the time, it was fun to just watch them jump around inside the cage and hear them bark. They sound like dogs which I didn't expect. I particularly liked watching two of them play leapfrog inside the exercise wheel.

Weird thing I learned today: Babymetal is coming to the US and they're going to open for Lady Gaga.

I initially had a casual interest in it but like Bjorn I'm seriously considering getting it now after reading some stuff about it. My money's a little tight at the moment but I plan to pick it up eventually. I haven't decided which version I want, but I'm leaning toward the 3DS.

Yes, Steamworld Dig is much closer to a platformer. There's no crafting in the game and the resources you mine are worth money and not used as actual resources. It has enemies you fight and abilities you unlock as you progress. Really the only way it resembles Terraria or Minecraft is that you can dig out the level and create your own path to things. It is definitely not a clone of those games.

You are correct, in order to use the touch screen to make blocks you have to be playing multiplayer and the person using the gamepad can only do that, not control a character. So with two people, one is Mario and the other spawns blocks. My experience with the game is about 15 minutes on the show floor at PAX with 4 other people and 2 Nintendo reps in the middle of their booth so it's probably not an accurate estimate of the fun.

I've only played NSMBU at PAX but I have to admit using the gamepad to create blocks and interact with the environment was kind of fun. The actual Mario platforming portion of the game is rather boring though. It seems like it would only be fun with a large enough group. Also it looks like the game later got patched to support the pro controller.

The Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts run was pretty entertaining. The game did a good job of trolling the runner with weapon drops (which he was required to pick up as part of the run conditions). The runner had a really good attitude about it too, laughing and joking the whole time. Octodad was excellent, but I think what I really enjoyed most was seeing a female runner. There aren't a lot of them at these events so it was great to see. The 2 controller Lost Vikings run was just insane.