SecretAsianMan

I don't mean to imply that it's all being done illegally or whatever, just that it's work Olly has done and is being used in a way that he himself didn't necessarily agree to in the first place. That's why I said "his work is being repurposed" and not "his work is being stolen", though that certainly happens.

Lately I've been thinking about getting a UPS for my computer. I frequently lose power during storms. Even steady but otherwise mild rain can cause brief outages where I live. Anyone have any good recommendations for one? This CyberPower one seems to be frequently recommended based on a cursory search. I'm not looking for something that's going to last me until I get power back, just enough that I can safely shutdown.

I've been meaning to post about this game again for a while but I kept forgetting. I've got some quiet time at work right now though. A couple weeks ago there was a sizable update to the game. They added a few more maps and 2 new perk classes. There was also a bit of reworking of existing classes. The two new ones are the Firebug and the Demolitions. As one would expect, the Demo class specializes in explosives. He's good at dealing with crowds and does extra damage to fleshpounds but right now I feel that it's a pretty weak class. Until you get to level 15, you're extremely vulnerable to Sirens. Sirens emit a scream that can destroy many projectiles, including every single explosive weapon. At level 15 you can pick a skill that lets you ignore the screams but until then you're at a serious disadvantage. He's also mostly useless against bigger enemies and anything that gets close because his weapons don't arm until they're a certain distance away and all the weapons need to reload after a single shot. The Firebug on the other hand is amazing. He's a close range class without any sort of movement speed increases or damage resistance (apart from fire which only comes from one enemy) so it's kind of risky to play but his skills make him really strong if done correctly. One skill lets you stumble enemies at point blank range which gives you some breathing room and another has a chance to make them explode if they're killed with a fire weapon. The explosions damage other Zeds and can set off chain reactions, clearing out large groups in an instant. He also has a second stumble mechanic that makes Zeds panic after being set on fire long enough. You can single handedly take out a Scrake or even a Fleshpound if you're careful. I still play this game fairly regularly. I wouldn't mind some company though. Oh, and if anyone is worried about their experience being reset once the game is released, Tripwire has stated that this won't happen. Your levels earned while the game is in early access will stay.

Olly Moss is no stranger to having his work repurposed https://twitter.com/ollymoss/status/640634147124342784 https://twitter.com/ollymoss/status/617123502127214592

If you count the current roster of hosts on your hand* in order of appearance Danielle is literally the Thumb on the Idle hand *assuming you start with your index finger and not counting Hot Scoops who isn't a regular host I will continue to include Jr. Mints in future candy packages in Danielle's honor (unless I can somehow get a New York address to send them to)

I don't know that I agree with you entirely. I can recall taking a history test before asking for a date of an event. I'm really bad at remember dates and such, but I came up with the answer by thinking about what caused the event and the sequence that led up to it. While it's true that the actual date was a thing that I remembered, I didn't arrive at the answer because I just reached into my memory and pulled the date out. I sat down and reasoned it out for a bit. You can call it a memorization technique if you want (which it is) but I don't think it's devoid of critical thinking. Related to this, I've always been bothered by the heavy emphasis on memorization in schools. I understand that knowing things is important, but why are we denying another critical (and far more useful in real life) skill: knowing how to find information. I've never had a situation in my real life where I was told I'm not allowed to use the resources available to me to find information when I need it. I sometimes joke that if I ever get an intern, I'm going to give them an assignment where they can't use any books, notes, or other resources to complete because I'm what their education has been preparing them for. If they ignore me and do those things anyway, all the better.

That's how I've always done math despite never being taught it. I never realized it had a name or that it was becoming a standard thing to teach.

This idea in particular is why the Giant Bomb GOTY discussions are great. Not only do they have an amusing set of categories, those categories and the subsequent debates do a good job of reminding me about things that happened during the year and why a game may or may not be worth checking out to me. I don't like reading reviews generally. I'd much rather hear someone talk for a few minutes about why they liked a game and then hearing an opposing counterpoint. A discussion almost always works way better for me than a speech.

Knowing there was a twist but not specifically what it was ruined the movie for me. I had been told by several people before I saw it that there was a surprise ending, which led to me figuring out what it was early on. And that was within months of the release. It's impressive to be able to be surprised by that today. The real sin the prequels committed (besides introducing Jar Jar Binks to the world) was that they failed to live up to the hype. And when you're talking about Star Wars, there's a LOT of hype to live up to. They get a hasher-than-probably-deserved rap because there was no way those expectations were going to get met. In the words of Yoda, "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering"

I really liked the idea of Uplink but I was always frustrated when I actually played it. I felt like the UI got in the way a lot of the time (too much clicking on specific pixels with a mouse while a timer counts down) and the systems are pretty unclear in how they work. I tried to play it several times and didn't even realize there was a story until like the 5th attempt. The music is pretty catchy though. It still sticks in my head for some reason.

On Sunday the 27th through Monday the 28th there will be a total lunar eclipse. But even more than that, it will be a total eclipse of a supermoon. A supermoon is when the Moon is as close to the Earth as it gets during its orbit resulting in the largest apparent size of the Moon in the sky. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes completely into the shadow of the Earth. Even though the Moon will be passing through the Earth's shadow, the Moon will appear a reddish color due to refraction of light through the atmosphere, a so called "Blood Moon". Because of the timing, only certain parts of the world will be able to see it. Here are the prime times to view it

What if the simulation in the Matrix movies wasn't based on real life but instead a cartoon or a video game? Would anyone who got freed from the matrix even be able to understand their actual reality? Or would their minds just snap? At first I thought I was being clever but then I realized I basically just conceived of a modern version of Plato's allegory of the cave.

Tonight's the first night of another period of 40+ days of night shift. This one started less fun that most because I drove all the way to work, realized I forgot my badge, and had to do another round trip. Although I did use the time to get through the latest Idle Thumbs so guess it wasn't all bad.

While I also dislike the concept of a GOTY list compiled by and "agreed" upon by multiple people, I don't think I necessarily agree with the idea that many sites will pick a AAA game like MGS because it's the "safe" thing (although I'm sure it's being done like that somewhere, it's a big internet). Most AAA games are going to have pretty broad appeal by design. They might have some kind of unusual concept or gimmick which will set it apart from it's peers, but they're also going to be less extreme in that respect than the lesser known games. When you get a group of people together to try and come up with what they collectively consider the best game of the year, I don't think it's all that surprising that the picks are going to be the games that everyone can agree is good. A game like SOMA or Undertale might very well be amazing and end up on a lot of personal GOTY lists but because it's more of a niche appeal it means some people are going to swing the other way harder than they will with something that's more middle ground like a AAA game. All of this is exactly the reason I dislike most non-personal GOTY lists. Unless I know at least a little bit about the personality of the list maker a GOTY list doesn't have much meaning to me. By it's nature, a site GOTY list is going to lack that individual personality and instead going to be a tendency. That doesn't interest me unless you have one of two scenarios. Either everyone has exactly the same tastes which is basically the same as having only one person anyway, or you have many different tastes and yet they all completely absolutely 100% agree on a GOTY in which case you've managed to transcend some boundaries in an impressive way and now I'm interested. I've also never written for any kind of game site or attempted to compile a GOTY list myself so I'm probably full of shit.

There could potentially be a strike among unionized video game voice actors coming. The SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actor's Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) is taking a vote to see if the strike will take place. What the union wants is backend bonuses for top selling games. That means royalties on games that sell over 2 million copies. Other considerations include stunt pay for stressful vocal sessions, having stunt coordinators available during motion capture, and more transparency about auditions so the actors know what it is they're auditioning for. Some of the bigger names that have voiced their support for the strike include David Hayter, Ashly Burch, Phil Lamarr, Wil Wheaton, and probably the biggest name Jennifer Hale who is in basically every game with a female voice.

The problem with that is sleep on flights is not restful sleep. As someone who's crossed the Pacific Ocean more than a dozen times, I can tell you that even though you're sleeping on the flight, you don't wake up feeling refreshed. All it's really good for is passing the time. That said though, it's still beats being awake so it's probably worth doing.

On the topic of flying being shitty, next year the Real ID act is going to take effect in the U.S. The Real ID act will require you to show an ID that can only be obtained with U.S. Citizenship. For some states, this does not include a driver's license. You'll instead have to show something like a passport, which a reported 38% of people don't even have. I have a passport but I don't carry it with me. I'm imagining a scenario where someone has checked their bags in but can't board their flight because they can't get past security due to not bringing a valid ID.

I'm not super interested in Rock Band anymore, but if they're going to have Babymetal and Weird Al, I might just have to get it somehow.

I should clarify that when I said value I meant besides entertainment. I really don't see how Gone Home isn't a useful way to understand the struggles of a child whose parents/society don't accept their lifestyle. If I was told that it was based on a real person, played through the game, and got a whole new respect for the struggles of LGBT people (which except for the part about thinking it was real is exactly what happened to me), then was told that the game was a work of fiction and none of it really happened, does that invalidate my new outlook? The value of the game to me was that it was a perspective I didn't have before. It caused me to consider things I hadn't, look at things from a different point of view. My mind was broadened by the experience and that is of extreme value to me. Whether it was fact or fiction is irrelevant.

The writing might be controlled by the author but not the interpretations of it. It's entirely possible for two people to read the same thing, get different meanings out of it, and for them both to be correct. If you personally don't find value in such things, that's fine. But to me a raw presentation of facts is less valuable and interesting than a nuanced take, at least in areas where there is no right answer. I'm curious what your opinion of video games is then. From how I'm reading your words, I guess they have no value to you because they're all created? Is Gone Home devoid of value because it was entirely crafted by Fullbright and not "real"?

Heh, this made me smile because I am an engineer of some sort and I just wrote a post about assigning numbers to emotions like love.

I think you're taking this too strictly. I don't think anyone is really suggesting that a single work or author should form the basis for someone's world view. It's merely another point of view, something to consider. Hopefully it makes you think about something you hadn't before or further develops a view you share. I think the problem with your comparison is you're taking something that is quantifiable and trying to contrast it with something that isn't. How do you assign a value to fear or anger or love? Can you explain morals through a data set? Things like these are undoubtedly part of the human condition but you don't prove them with numbers. You learn about them through experience and sometimes that experience is as a third party.

The thing I hate about many cutscenes is the way they completely undermine you as a player. When I see a cutscene that shows my character doing crazy flips, dodges, attacks, and moving at lightning speed when I can't do any of that shit myself it makes the gameplay feel really plodding once control is returned to me. Don't dangle a carrot in front of me by trying to make me feel like I'm playing as a badass then take it away by not letting me actually do anything cool. That's one thing I miss about playing Valve games. Since you're always in control (at least as long as the character itself has control) you are never shown doing anything you can't do. You are exactly the character they present and their capabilities are your capabilities.

To a degree, this describes me. I'm 3/4 Chinese and 1/4 Japanese but I was born in and have lived my entire life in the United States. I grew up in middle class suburbia. By and large, this meant that I was one of, if not the ONLY, non-White kid. Until around the time I left for college, I would often think of myself as White because that's the environment I grew up in. It's what I knew, it's what I saw, and it's what everyone who wasn't related to me was. I never experienced any overt racism or hardship due to my race growing up so my considering myself White wasn't an act of self preservation. In a way I was conditioned to think like that. In the logical sense I knew that I was Asian, but in a personal sense there were often times where I'd have to remind myself that I was in fact not White. I've never actively tried to pass myself as anything other than Asian, but I also don't advertise it (apart from my forum name. A while ago I actually changed my Steam name to remove the reference to my being Asian). There have been times where people have assumed I was White (or at the very least did not suspect I was Asian) based on my voice and first name, neither of which makes it apparent that I am Asian as I have an American accent and a common first name. If I would have been asked, I wouldn't say I was anything other than what I am, but I fully admit there are times where it's easier to let the other party assume and not challenge those assumptions unless necessary.

I think at long last I'm finally done with Spelunky. It took about 2 years of almost non-stop daily challenges, but I no longer have a desire to play that game everyday. I haven't done a daily in over a week and don't miss it at all. I'm not posting this in the quitter's club thread because I suspect I'll still play it occasionally, but my daily love affair is definitely over.