SecretAsianMan

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I'm actually kind of glad I started doing it. The first few times were exercises in extreme anxiety and self doubt, but as I do more I'm getting used to it and starting to get more comfortable with it. It doesn't completely remove the neuroses because I'll still pick my performance apart, but it helps to mitigate the feeling of dread.

I've started recording my Spelunky Daily Challenge runs for the Idle Explorers thread. Having an audio and visual record of my actions has become an act of self flagellation as I can now second guess every decision and word a million times over.

The IGN.com thread seems appropriate. But it's fine here too.

With regard to Mario, I had a similar experience to Jake with Super Mario World. In college my friend's mom sent her old SNES to her along with SMW. An event that started as a potluck dinner turned into a SMW party. My friend proclaimed that she was an expert at the game, having beaten it multiple times. The rest of our friends had only a passing familiarity with it. We then proceeded to start a new 2-player game, where I then IGN.com'd her by immediately revealing secrets she never knew existed, such as the Star Road. I didn't have the intention of being a showoff, but I accidentally ended up as one.

I agree with this. Before the update I did the same thing, beating the game without paying anything (I used the occasional free powerup but never got more with the ingame coins). The design was definitely set on encouraging you to pay for extra plants and upgrades, but with a little planning and work it was entirely possible to never miss them. After the update, the game swings to the far end of the bullshit meter by throwing unfair amounts of special zombies at you so that you're forced to use the non-renewable resources. It eliminates the need to farm for keys to unlock levels, but the tradeoff is the core game got much worse.

I messed up the recording and my internet cut out so once again I'm not on the leaderboards. I also did terrible and died on 1-4 so no big loss.

I pulled a Homer.

Pretty good run today, with probably my favorite altar ever

https://twitter.com/GovBrewer/status/438838664928325633

Bah, hoisted by my own petard!

I have no interest in playing DayZ myself, but THIS SOUNDS AMAZING http://blog.idlethumbs.net/post/77927297659/the-least-dangerous-game-a-dayz-mano-a-mano-event

No reason to be sorry, I wasn't insulted or anything. On the contrary, I hadn't really considered that I was in fact repeating a question that's been asked for perhaps thousands of years. I'm glad you pointed it out. I periodically check the List of Common Misconceptions on Wikipedia and am saddened that it exists and continues to grow (and am occasionally ashamed that I believed a few).

Yeah, I guess in hindsight I don't exactly have a unique point of view but that doesn't provide much comfort or resolution. I suppose until the hive mind is a reality, we'll never really know what the collective intelligence of the planet is.

It is true that if you actively look for stupidity you're more likely to find it, but I don't think anyone could deny that there's a lot of evidence out there to support either view.

I feel like people in general are getting dumber, yet technology, science, and the sum of human knowledge seem to be advancing at an almost alarming rate. I know the internet is not a good indicator of...well...anything, but it feels like the average person is becoming a stupider over time while humanity as a whole is getting smarter. One of these perceptions must be wrong, but I honestly don't know which one.

I had a dream last night that I was in some kind of survival horror game. At one point I was in a cell of some kind with metal walls, when I was suddenly at a gathering of friends (none of whom I had ever met before) playing video games. One of them started showing us a modded version of Goldeneye (the N64 version) that had a new level that involved a hidden submarine that could only be seen when looked at from a specific angle. This led to a serious discussion about game design. Afterwards we went out for Chinese food and then I woke up.

I finished it up last night. I agree that viewing things from a single perspective would have been less confusing and Sohta's would have made it more interesting. I really want to tie up the loose ends but I don't like the idea of playing the card game a million times, so I'm stopping here. I also completely agree with Dibs about the village, it seems like a great setting for an imaginative kid to wander around.

I finished Attack of the Friday Monsters for the 3DS. At least I think I did, I got credits. There's more stuff to do after that but it mostly involving grinding a card game so I think I'm calling it here. It's a fun, quirky game that's really silly but incredibly charming. I had a good time with it.

I've always liked the idea of wandering a world after the "end" of the game. I remember when Fallout 3 was released and many people (myself included) were upset that the game ended rather than letting you back into the world (assuming you chose an ending that would allow this). One thing I dislike about games that have a big ending is the sort of crash that comes after. Everything in the game was leading up to the final moment and hopefully it was exciting or entertaining or whatever is appropriate. But if the game just ends there it feels like coming off some kind of high with no real letdown after. I like when I can end a game because of my own sense of fulfillment, not because the game told me this was the end. I also think this could be a good place to put game credits. Zelda games sort of do this, but I'd prefer a more interactive form.

Another crappy run that won't show up on the leaderboards because my internet goes out in the middle. If you see me with a 0, that's why.

Please tell me Chris is composing the sea shanty.

In case anyone didn't sign up for the Campo Santo newsletter (and really, why would you not) the first one got sent out today and contains the first issue of the Campo Santo Quarterly Review, written by the new Campo Santo Ombudsman Duncan Fyfe. I won't spoil whats inside, go read it for yourself. You shall not be disappointed. http://www.camposanto.com/quarterlyreview/vol1issue1/

I completely understand your sentiment here, but I have to say that I have a couple Razer products and so far I've found them to be of rather good quality. They are a little gimmicky and maybe try too hard to cater to the "hardcore" gamer, but the bottom line is they're actually good products so maybe think twice before dismissing them out of hand.