@Admiral said in General Video Game Thread:
@Auspice You're getting a Switch? I got one last week myself! (Mainly for Dragon Quest Builder 2, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and Super Mario Maker 2)
I've been wanting one for a whiiiiiile (got the PS4 first since I've been wanting it longer / it was cheaper during Black Friday than the Switch), but I'd really like to get one by November for new Pokemon.
I just gotta get a new jerb first. Current income won't allow it.
I need this job I'm interviewing for on Friday so that I can afford a damn Switch by November!
@Sparks said in General Video Game Thread:
A whole bunch of Pokémon Sword and Shield / Gen 8 reveals today! A couple of new Gen 8 Pokémon revealed! The legendaries for the Galar region revealed! Dynamax (giant) Pokémon! Multiplayer cooperative battles, where you can meet up with your friends and battle together instead of as opponents!
flails around madly
Gameplay reveal trailer, as well as the general game information page with new information and a longer version of the above gameplay trailer.
flails around more
(Look, there's a special place in my heart for games falling into the "RPG I can carry in my bag and play in short bursts throughout the day, but could also play for hours on a plane" category; the Pokémon games have long dominated that particular spot, though admittedly the Fire Emblem games also often wander into that bucket.)
Some of the leaks for the new Pokemon have had me excite.
Your husband's reaction has me inclined to wait for it to be on streaming. I am... supremely (thanks, degree, and all the screenwriting classes you put me through!) nitpicky on writing now.
It's both good and bad. It's good because man I can really, really appreciate well-done dialogue and pacing and I actually find myself going to see movies for repeat viewings now more than I ever did before (because I'll get that first time of just absorbing and then wanna go back so I can pay attention and understand how they did it / wrote it and sort of mentally compile the script). But then it's bad because when a movie is bad, it's really bad.
@Lotherio I get ya. I'm not backtracking really. I just had a bit of meditative thought over my FOURCHATA (fuckyaself, @Auspice) and wanted to throw out that stream of consciousness or whatever it was.
^ Ghost: "Social thought stuff pondering WALDEN WAS RIGHT transcendental stuff"
I fuck myself because I'm the only one who can do it right.
But that's neither here, there, nor does it resolve the issue of YOU HAD THE WRONG MORNING DRINK.
I was giving this some thought this morning while I was drinking my quad-shot dirty chai and listening to the radio in the car. (not an important detail).
I THOUGHT WE AGREED COLD BREW WAS KING.
YOU LIED TO ME.
I got a new thing now.
4 shots of espresso. Chai tea. Milk. Little bit of cinnamon.
I call it the "Fourchata"
I was giving this some thought this morning while I was drinking my quad-shot dirty chai and listening to the radio in the car. (not an important detail).
I THOUGHT WE AGREED COLD BREW WAS KING.
YOU LIED TO ME.
The concept of staff and their role in things (along with worries of alt-outing) makes me wonder on another idea.
I like to craft plot catered to groups. I also love when plot is catered to groups. What if games had code where players could set their hard limits on a note/attribute that only staff could see? Both for purposes of support and for plot creation ("Okay I want to make a plot for these players here but I want to make sure I don't accidentally trip over anyone's hard nopes....").
I had one of those days today (at least during work) where I was so focused. I was zeroed in. I was getting shit done. To the extent that my coworker began creating work for himself because he (per what he told me) felt bad because I was 'doing so much.'
I told him not to worry about it - I was fine! Well. I was fine for where I was.
I was also super disappointed that my Day Of Focus (I get one a month on average) was being wasted on work. I would have preferred to have been at home writing.
Because now that I'm home and trying to work on some shit I just feel like a broken thing.
So I wanted to come back and say this about Dauntless:
As someone whose ADD limits what she can play (a lot of games have long matches wherein it's hard for me to stay put and focus on just the one thing the whole time), the brief matches before going back to town are pretty much perfect.
Go kill a behemoth. Go to town. Craft or turn in quests or whatever. Then I can get up or alt tab or do whatever my brain demands.
Part of why I stopped playing League was match time went from averaging 30 minutes to an hour. The better you do in games like PUBG, the longer you're stuck focusing (or trying to focus) on just one thing.
The fact that I know as soon as I sign up for a mission it's going to be super quick? Is great. The fact that it also means my rando team, if they're duds, won't be around long? Also great.
I also think the comparisons to Fortnite are silly. I mean I guess they come from the fact that you can pay real money to customize your character and that Forkknife is the most recent game to have a more cartoony look to the design, but visually I got a more WoW feel than anything. Gameplay wise it's not like Fortnite at all.
@Sparks said in Buying Shit:
@Auspice — Armitron Sport, ~$25. Time/date, two timezones, countdown timer, stopwatch.
That would likely work! Thank you. 
I also think X-cards in V5 works better for two reasons:
Smaller group and it's a single splat.
We have very few single splat games anymore (I can look at a, say, Demon game and go yeah, not for me and wander off) and a small group can hammer out their no-go topics ('OK, no PCs will be under 18 at the time of their death, no rape scenes implied or otherwise, no graphic descriptions whenever Jake kills someone with his katana...').
I also think, again, using it as a base when its base is the whole issue is....kinda like building a house on a foundation when the foundation is cracked through.
We need a wholly different approach altogether.
I think, unfortunately, part of the reason it's difficult to say 'If you don't like what's being played then leave' is because we are discussing uncomfortable content at times.
Violence. Smoking (as referenced in one of the prior posts). Murder. Sexual content. These are 'triggering' things as discussed. Yes, I very much agree that if it is something where if you realize 'Hey, this is a negative environment for me, the rest of you are enjoying it' ... you need to step out. There are things where the group probably shouldn't be playing it (I'm not OK with on-camera rape, for example: way not OK.... but y'know, uh, that'd probably be where I step out), but not to digress.
The reason it's difficult to discuss is because over yonder in the HogPit we've had people get upset over these things. Scenarios of 'I was in a scene' or 'They play this stuff on this game' and the response has been 'Hey it sounds like it'd be healthiest if you removed yourself from this situation because the rest of these people wanna play this, but you are very unhappy right now. Don't put yourself through that if it's taking you to a bad place' and the response has been 'Don't victim blame!'
... so where do we find our middle ground here? If suggesting someone remove themselves from an uncomfortable/bad situation is victim blaming but we also acknowledge that one person shouldn't be able to force an entire group to change (like another scenario above: an entire plot is themed around investigating a murder and someone is triggered by the concept of murder so....... how do plot?)
This is why it's hard to discuss and why it gets so frustrating to discuss sometimes. I lean to the side of 'it's best to step away' because that's what's always worked best for my health in the past.
Sure, you could create a wholly different system (like the tag thing @Auspice mentioned) but that really wasn't what we're talking about here.
I was actually going to ask you how difficult it would be to add a tags field to your events system in Ares. A non-mandatory one, of course (since social events, casual ones, and 'it takes time to adopt' would mean it's not necessary for everything).
I think it could have a lot of value and help people in identifying 'Is this event for me?'
@Ghost said in Good or New Movies Review:
@Auspice gonna see the hell outta that
If I didn't work freakin' SECOND SHIFT (ugh), I have passes for an advanced screening on Monday.
Anyone in Austin want them? Passes for 2 at 7:30p on Monday (the 10th).
(Seriously, until I'm off 2nd, I can be your movie hookup. I get opportunities for advanced screenings a couple times a month. Some of 'em are duds but some - LIKE THIS - are awesome.)
@Thenomain said in X-Cards:
The whole purpose of the card system is to be no questions asked.
And if you don't like it, change the system.
Which is what I said.
And thus it invalidates the system at its core.
It's a great system when you're going in blind (as in, yeah, Cons) and you don't know anyone (a), you're on a limited timeframe (b), and you're likely already in a stressful environment (c).
But on a MU, I think we'd be better off trying to foster better communicative environments. Someone suggested adapting events systems to have tags that could work as ways to flag what an event might include as triggers. I know I (and I've seen others do it) try to notate when a plot scene might include things that could be triggering (such as horror themes, lots of violence, etc.) so that people are forewarned. A tagging system where it could be readily listed in a common (as in the same every time) location that people can see at-a-glance would be great.
Policies wherein people know they can approach the ST privately (or if they're uncomfortable with approaching the ST, a Staffer or 'Guide' on the games that have them) to say 'Hey, I'm not comfortable with this specific element' and discuss it in an adult way (on both ends: STs who can handle being told 'I don't like this' and players who can handle being told 'I'm sorry, but it is a core aspect of the plot; you may need to consider sitting this one out.'
And the last is a vital thing, too: I think there have been times where people put themselves through things they shouldn't (and know they shouldn't: be it triggering content, clash of personalities, etc.) because they want the XP, the loot, or the Staff attention and become the problem themselves after the fact. Sometimes it's just not going to work and you need to acknowledge that ('This element I don't like is a me thing and I need to step away rather than continue to be a detriment to everyone else.' for example.).
...I think in our particular unique sort of community we need to utilize other methods and there's no amount of 'house ruling' X-Cards that would see them still be anything of their former self without just being a sort of... hassle. We can grow what we currently have (making a richer +event system, building a better policy, being our best selves) instead, IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs5ZOcU6Bnw
How have we not been discussing this?
@Ghost I blame you.
@Ganymede said in RL things I love:
I love that I have satellite radio now.
And I can listen to the 40s and 50s channels rolling through the local destruction, imagining myself in a Fallout spinoff.
Fallout: New Property Damage Claims.
I was extolling the virtues of sat radio (I got it free for a year with my car and I've been moping that the year is almost up) to @Ghost the other day. It has some excellent channels.
I like playing Sinatra radio (71) during quiet, night time drives home.
