I Saw Dasein

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Everything posted by I Saw Dasein

  1. Episode 355: Stellaris

    This is a bit off topic, but as I am enjoying Stellaris in a mild way I am thinking I would like to try EUIV. I'm a bit confused by all of the DLC and I have read some reviews suggesting the "base game" has become unplayable without the DLC. Is that right? Is there fun to be had in this game without investing hundreds of dollars into it?
  2. Books, books, books...

    Freedom was garbage but the Corrections was good... I at least liked the part about Chip, possible because I too am an early thirties white guy struggling with monotony etc. I read some cool books this summer: 1. I read some books my Julio Cortazar. I read a book of his short stories called "Blow-Up". Very good magical realist/weird latin American fiction. One of the stories is available online here. Obviously influenced a lot by Borges and (I think) French existentialists. Apparently Bolano liked him, and so does Vandermeer (The guy who wrote the Southern Reach books) and it shows. I also read one of his novels called "Hopscotch". It's basically an anti-novel. There's about 150 chapters presented more-or-less chronologically, but rather than reading it front to back there is also a set of instructions presenting an alternate course through the book. I have heard it is called the first hyperlink novel, which I don't really agree with, but it is extremely well written and cool. 2. I read "A brief history of portable literature" by Enrique Vilas-Matas, which was written in the 1960s or 70s but only recently translated. It's about a fictional avant-garde movement of artists/writers comprised of Marcel Duchamp, George O'Keefe, etc. Very short and absurdist. I liked it, but not as much as I thought I would? 3. I read "Gringos" on the recommendation of someone in this thread. I love Charles Portis and this one was for sure one of his best. His books always remind me of the Coen brothers for some reason, and this one was no exception. A weird rambling story of one man's search through Mexico for a mystical Aztec city....
  3. Books, books, books...

    I never read Gringos but I will definitely check it out... I kind of forgot about Charles Portis I am reading "So you've been publicly shamed" and its kind of manipulative and I think Jon Ronson is trolling at least a little. But I now do feel kind of bad for Jonah Lehrer.
  4. I Had A Random Thought...

    if you live somewhere with bedbugs you purchase used sofas at your peril...
  5. Books, books, books...

    Seriously "Dog of the South" rules so much, Ray Midge is an Ignatious J. Reilly-level crank.
  6. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    Well, to my knowledge Poland hasn't practiced imperialism, cultural or otherwise, at any time in the recent past either. To the contrary, Poland has repeatedly been the victim of imperialism.
  7. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    I definitely agree that there could have easily been a more diverse cast of character, and I'm not saying that they shouldn't have included people of other racial background. I just find it very peculiar that this game in particular is being so criticized for it, when this game is a rare example of a really successful game from a historically marginalized culture and country.
  8. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    Well, let me give you an example. There are no black people (to my recollection) in the movie Princess Monoke, a film feature a lot of magic and fantasy creatures and so on. To my knowledge, that movie has never been criticized for its lack of diversity. So what is the difference between that and the Witcher 3?
  9. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    I am basically pretty comfortable with people in other countries making art that is reflective of that country, but not reflective of the United States. I don't feel entitled to tell artists living in another society that their art should conform to my day-to-day experience. Accordingly, I am fine with Japanese people making art that is reflective of Japanese society, Inuit people making art that is reflective of Inuit society, and Polish people making art that is reflective of Polish society.
  10. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    There pretty much are only Polish people in Poland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Poland Likewise, I have played a fair number of Japanese games that feature only Japanese people and it's never struck me as something I should be concerned by. There pretty much are only Japanese people in Japan, so I don't really expect Japanese artists to represent people of other ethnicity in their games.
  11. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    Witcher 3 is so determinedly Polish, though. It's not full of a bunch of generic "white people", it's full of specifically Polish people (or at least that's how it seems to me). I mean, it's a Polish studio making games based on a Polish book series that is itself based on Polish mythology, for what was (at least at first) a primarily Polish audience. If it's OK to "write about what you know" surely it is also OK to make a game about what you know? And it's not like Polish people have had such an easy and privileged time of it both in their home country and in the United States. Both the Nazis and the Soviets committed genocides against the Poles, and Polish people in the United States were also subject to serious racism. I feel like treating this game as "too many white people" is a gross oversimplification. It would be just as unfair to ask to be able to play a Polish person in Never Alone, a game based on Inuit mythology that features an Inuit protagonist.
  12. Nobody expects the Dragon Age Inquisition

    I started a story mission and most of my characters stopped animating entirely. They kind of just hovered above the ground with their arms and legs splayed to the side, like little ragdolls. I restarted the game without the tweak and the mission started fine. The same thing happened in a later mission and again, restarting without the tweak fixed the problem.
  13. Nobody expects the Dragon Age Inquisition

    This works but beware! It will cause game-breaking bugs in some story missions. At least it did for me.
  14. Star Wars VII - Open spoilers

    Traditionally swords aren't made out of lasers
  15. HOTS... no the other HOTS. The Lords Management one damn it!

    I am playing this and really enjoying it. I've never really gotten into a lords management game before--I have no real interest in watching videos or reading guides or anything, so I never had the faintest clue what to do in LoL (I never even tried to get into DotA2). HotS is, for the most part, simple enough that I could start playing without feeling like I needed to spend a couple hours researching just to understand what is going on. Coupled to that is the fact that I have at most 20-30 minutes a day to game, which is pretty much exactly the length of a HotS match.
  16. I want there to be a game like Alpha Centauri or Beyond Earth where the gameplay focuses on colonization and terraforming instead of combat. I loved tinkering with terrain in Alpha Centauri and would happily play a whole game about that. That kind of exploration and challenge is what is interesting about colonizing a new planet, not shooting guys with ray guns or whatever.
  17. Alien Isolation - The nightmare of Milky Joe

    So... did you guys make it through the medical section? I am stuck there and I hate it. I hate having to play the same part over and over; I hate that the alien won't leave me alone; I hate that I have to hear the same scripted dialogue every time I restart; i hate playing time quick-time events; I really just don't like it.
  18. Episode 280: Have Fun Storming the Castle

    You guys missed one of the best castle-building games ever--Rampart! Great combination of an area-control game, a Tetris-like puzzle game, a tower defence game, and (of course) arcade goodness.
  19. BioShock Infinite

    I don't see why we should care what a creator's intentions are with respect to a work. If my experience of a work on its own merits is that the work is consistent with or supports a particular ideology (e.g. racism) then I don't care whether that consistency is intentional or not. Trying to look behind a work for authorial intent is a rube's game.
  20. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

    Eowyn is described as a shieldmaiden. Ergo shields.
  21. Hearthstone: Because what Magic really needed was F2P mechanics

    I have been playing an absolute ton of Hearthstone. It's the first CCG I've played since I was a wee lad playing M:tG during recess. (My mom was concerned that my cards might get mixed up with those of my friends, so she wrote my initials on the back of each of my cards in permanent marker--thanks mom!) I'm really enjoying it: for me, it has the perfect mix of fairly light strategy/math with enough randomness to keep it exciting. Arena is super, super fun. I also am OK with the payment model. I spent $12 in the month that I've played, all on arena tickets, and I feel like that's a fair price. I've certainly gotten more than 12$ worth of pleasure out of the game so far.
  22. Your Favourite Book This Year (2013)

    i liked "Name of the Wind" but I hated "wise man's fear", seemed masturbatory in every possible sense. I think i'm pretty much done with "genre" fantasy though, so mileage may vary etc. Speaking of genre fantasy, I was sad that the last book of Richard Morgan's "Land fit for heroes" didn't come out this year as planned. That series is pretty rad so far. The protagonist is an interesting and fairly believable sorta-maybe-anti-hero, it has interesting sci-fi conceits, and features a fair amount of super-explict gay sex. good times.
  23. I Had A Random Thought...

    i do not like fatburger much. maybe I just haven't been to a good one, but the one near me is strictly sub-wendy's. Five guys is good though. Also Vancouver has amazing chinese (especially if you count Richmond) and OK pizza (getting better!).
  24. Life

    this is me irl http://vimeo.com/52752274
  25. Life

    today i got called to the bar and can now officially sue shit out of ppl.