Posts made by Arkandel

I need to play something new. Start Fallout 4 or grab Divinity 2?

Please don't answer "yes".

I watched Dark Phoenix.

What a piece of shit movie that was.

@Warma-Sheen I think it's just time. Grade 2 calf strains take 4-8 weeks and it's only been a month. What I'm reading (and I mean... there's no way to know truth from fiction with all these reporters trying to bait clicks) is KD has still been unable to have full court practice without his foot bothering him considerably.

He's just not ready. And they may be about to run out of time.

@Ganymede I think it's over. Toronto is about to go fucking bananas.

@Auspice The important part is people had your back. Any way you can CYA for these scenarios (i.e. something that leaves a trail)?

@Sunny said in General Video Game Thread:

I am trying to decide if I want to continue my D:OS2 playthrough right now or go see if I can get through BG1 and BG2 again. They held up pretty well.

I tried with the remastered version, dammit, but whatever rose-colored glasses I was wearing weren't enough for the shock of what these graphics look like to my 2018+ eyes.

Baldur's Gate 3 confirmed, suckers!

@Tempest That's what turned me off, too. There's this whole 'retro pixelated 8-bit look' many A-list (and priced) games seem to be going for these days I'm really not into.

@Testament One thing I heard (but haven't verified) over the radio this morning was the Russians aren't pleased with how Chernobyl was made. The argument was "imagine if Russia had made a mini series about 9/11 and everyone in it had non-American accents".

@Thenomain said in Good or New Movies Review:

See Above re: Doing it Right. It's going to be a challenge to fold the two universes together since extremely different world-changing events have been happening in either of them.

That's been a thing for comics in general for decades; sure, the Fantastic Four just fought Galactus outside of New York but where were the Avengers and why aren't they at least acknowledging it in their comic?

At least for me handwaving such things doesn't ruin my immersion. The real question is will they make great movies? If so, my disbelief is ready to be suspended.

Posts moved. Damn guys, stay out of the Ad threads for commentary and criticism. It's not hard.

I have the feeling Dark Phoenix is, uh, not going to be a very good movie, just judging by the early reviews.

@Pandora said in X-Cards:

I'm open to the idea of people tagging or flagging ahead of time that they don't like X, Y, and Z, as it makes it very easy for me to exclude them from my RP thus avoiding triggering their anxieties or having my roleplay interrupted.

Absolutely. That's perfectly acceptable. Just because you're willing to accommodate others who're triggered by whatever it doesn't mean you're also obligated to continue playing with them.

TLDR; if you don't like something to the point where it's a roleplay deal breaker for yourself, the onus is on you to make these requirements known ahead of time or to remove yourself as swiftly and unobtrusively as possible without requiring anyone to cater to you.

Absolutely not. I can't imagine many things less savory than people - who already feel bad and who're obligated to stand out for themselves and say "ahem, sorry guys, this feels awkward" to have to either hide the fact or broadcast their vulnerabilities somehow (what, their wiki?) just in case they come up.

Caveat: Don't spring toilet play or graphic depictions of your character's anal prolapse on people without some sort of warning, there is of course a scale of appropriateness and I am not advocating for a free-for-all of everyone's batshit crazy.

... That's oddly specific.

@surreality I agree, but I think it's as important to not only look for extreme scenarios here. The bar doesn't need to be quite that high - it shouldn't be a show stopper only when someone in a scene busts out the puppy-killing- or gang-rape-as-plot-device.

I mean Theno has a point in that there ought to be a discussion if something somewhat more minor or banal should spark at least some debate but... am I really sacrificing my character's sacrosanct portraying integrity by making the fact he carries a putrid stench not quite the focus of several of my poses if it's putting someone off? Maybe it rained outside on the way over and he got an impromptu shower it for that one session, so I can just not say anything when an X-Card is played.

Not everything has to be nitpicked, yet a minor issue for one person can be a major one for another.

@Auspice said in X-Cards:

Violence. Smoking (as referenced in one of the prior posts). Murder. Sexual content. These are 'triggering' things as discussed.

And this is so hard to enforce because limits ought to work both ways. For instance my instant thought when I saw smoking was "wait, really? that's too much", simply because I'm not a smoker and/or it doesn't bug me.

But if it bugs someone else why not allow them to point it out? If it's a minor thing in the scene they could just be accommodated without any true loss or need to nitpick, which seems to be the entire point of X Cards in general - that they don't need to be explained.

Because the moment they have to be justified and debated they are that much less likely to be raised in the first place, which leaves a person unhappy with something that might be trivial to remove.

@Ghost said in X-Cards:

It fixes nothing.

I do not believe that to be correct. It fixes the problem of players playing on games with content that they do not enjoy and players being forced to play games they do not wish.

I think either you missed the point or I did a poor job of making it. Probably the latter.

In games historically the onus has always been on the person who's inconvenienced to suck it up or go away. And it's been placed there more by an established culture in each game rather than its policy.

In other words if you're uncomfortable then you are also expected to speak up about it; that's already a hard step to take, especially if it shows vulnerability on your part, sets you apart from others who are (seem to be) having fun and you'll ruin it, etc. What's even worse is you're often not actually told to leave if you don't like it or if you are then it's not by some game admin but a person in that scene who, because they are not inconvenienced by the cause of your discomfort, simple choose to dismiss it.

There are clearly boundaries and compromises when many different players are present in a single game. If I go to a horror game I can't complain that it scares me; if I'm on Shang I can't be scandalized by the focus on TS. But it's still important for us to look at someone who's genuinely disturbed by a theme not integral to a MU* (or a scene) and try to accommodate them even if it comes at a slight cost to our own enjoyment.

That's just a common courtesy.

@Ghost said in X-Cards:

• Asking the X-Card player to leave the game due to discomfort is contradictory to the spirit of adopting the X-card "mission statement".

That has been the default answer since the 80s. "If you don't like it then don't play here".

It fixes nothing.

@Warma-Sheen said in Fandom and entitlement:

You make it sound like producers are hiding in a corner scared, instead of making decisions that make money. These decisions aren't driven by fear. They're driven by greed.

Oh the two are far from mutually exclusive. The political climate is quite volatile and with enough people out there looking hard to pick on any piece of controversy they can find (or manufacture) no one wants their super expensive $100m+ production derailed near its premier by the conversation shifting to boycotts and criticism.

Remember how much of a movie's total earnings comes down to front-loaded ticket sales - the first week (hell, the first weekend) counts for so much. Producers absolutely don't want anything to rain on that parade.

@Warma-Sheen I learned basketball in Europe where killing the clock is not just a legitimate but a go-to tactic if you're ahead near the end of regulation.

In fact I'm still shocked watching NBA games at teams' refusal to gamble on sending their opposing team's worst shooters to the free throw line; if, for example, the Raptors had sent Draymond to the line instead of giving Iggy the widest open 3 possible they might have had a chance to tie the game.

@Ghost Probably as long as we're still talking about it we're not there yet.