Posts made by HelloRaptor

@Miss-Demeanor said:

That only works if you HAD the name of the person assigned to them before they started changing shit around. I don't know about you, but I have 133 contacts on Skype. I can guarantee I do not talk to all of them every week. If someone has changed their Skype name and picture since I spoke to them last... I no longer know who that person is.

As soon as I add somebody as a contact I immediately rename the contact as XYZ@ABC in a manner that'll readily identify them to me at a glance. I have barely any idea of what people's actual profile names are at this point.

Re: Paper

Anybody who thinks paper isn't going the way of the dodo is deluding themselves. Shit, our exterminator had to tell us that they're in transition to switch to a paperless format, and they're hardly at the vanguard of progress. More and more often even if you do deal in paper, whatever business you're dealing with is just scanning or entering the data into a computer somewhere and probably disposing of the hard copy. Whether or not that's wise is really besides the point: Paper takes up space. Lots of space, in the case of many businesses. A digital record can be stored in multiple places for redundancy, but entire paper filing systems have been destroyed by weather or disaster.

As for reading, books were awesome when I was growing up. I loved having books. Now, though? Fuck no. I could line the walls of my house top to bottom with all the books I've owned, and would probably still own, and would still not have anywhere enough room. Meanwhile I can carry virtually that entire amount around on my kindle. A device which has a reading texture almost identical to a book, but can adjust lighting, font size, and more on the fly to accommodate my eyes or environment.

Seriously, fuck paper. Now if they'd just start making a pen tip stylus that didn't cost an arm and a leg.

@Arkandel

Why are no posts about how those other books failed to be enjoyed by everyone?

Yeah, I'll reiterate the above: Because not everybody everywhere clamors about how you just HAVE to read those other books. It was more or less the same with the Wheel of Time books. They were mostly trash, but their fans were fans and god help you if you didn't enjoy them.

Yeah, pretty much how I feel about the books and balking at their appeal to folks.

Then again, I enjoy a lot of shit my friends balk at, so.

Yeah, I've done a lot of things in my life that I should feel bad for, but that's one of the few I really regret. Nobody deserves that.

Meh, I never cared that stuff wasn't Tolkein, or even that it was bad.

Chronicles of TC basically started with rape and despair and got worse from there.

I just kept reading because they had this sliver of promise, but it was like luring a kid along with a picture of a candy cane and then beating him with an actual cane if he ever got too close to the picture.

I would not be surprised to see an audiobook of these books featured as a torture dilemma in Saw 8 or whatever they're up to.

You are a goddamn monster.

I was just fucking with him. Honestly, I felt bad about it as soon as I hit submit. Those books were so bad, so treacherously horrible, that I feel like they don't actually qualify as books. Sure, they're printed text on a page, but it's like calling the torture and mutilation of another human being 'exercise' just because you broke a sweat in the process.

Every now and then I suggest someone read them just because misery loves company.

@Glitch , go read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever.

It will totally change your life.

Bonus points if you read The Second Chronicles, and The Last Chronicles.

You will never be the same.

@Ganymede said:

I really don't give two shits about my Inquisitor. She has no backstory.

This wasn't really an issue for me. Perhaps it's because I'm so used to that being more or less the norm for a lot of games I play. I barely cared about my character's history prior to the game in DA:O. I cared in DA:2 because I played through elements of it early on, I suppose.

Whatever a game has to say about my character's backstory, I make my decisions based on the character I want to be playing, as much as the game will allow.

And who am I supposed to feel for among the Inquisitor's compatriots?

This I don't really get. I had a pretty easy time feeling for almost all of the companions at one point or another. They all had pretty personal, humanizing stories across the length of the game, and their banter while in the party revealed a lot of stuff about them, as did conversations in Skyhold. What else did you want out of them?

Yeah, playing the earlier games is probably kind of mandatory for real investment in DA:I. I did say kind of, so anybody furiously typing about how it's totally not necessary is invited to shut right the fuck up.

@Coin said:

@HelloRaptor
Jerk.

Probably.

@Coin said:

@HelloRaptor
Or maybe it's just a way of saying that I suspect it might be more fun because that's my opinion. I don't necessarily have to hate people who play PCs more powerful than mine to have an opinion that isolates a game. You exaggerating jerk.

Hey, I said probably. ^_^

@Luna , that's like being disappointed a motorcycle isn't the replacement you wanted for your exercise bike. O_O

@Thenomain

I'm also one of the few people who thought the original endings for ME3 was the right ending. I destroyed all galactic society everywhere. No wussing out. No "oh, but we'll be fine soon" back-peddling. BOOM. Galactic civilization set back a thousand years; that's my legacy. It made that decision weigh so much heavier, and feel that much more tangible. I'm not a hater, I'm just particular.

Finishing out a more or less epic space opera with a multiple choice question whose answer took virtually nothing across three whole games into account was still kind of ass, though.

I just assume you're both haters, I guess.

My bad. I think I meant @glitch.

Sorry Gany.

I probably liked DA2 more than DA:O as well, in many regards. I'm so done with silent protagonists in games with other character voices.

Yes. DA2 had its issues and was widely considered a failure by the louder part of the internet, with our own home-grown @thenomain and @ganymede loudly decrying it here, but aside from the map repetitions I rather liked it. Regardless, they're both worth playing.

In particular you should see if DA:O includes the Awakening expansion and Witch Hunt DLC, and whether DA2 has the ..uh.. I forget what it's called. There's two huge DLC for it. The family one.

@Insomnia

Other than that I guess she really pisses Solas off.

Weird. I always got the impression Solas was entertained by and approved of Sera more often than not.

@Glitch said:

@HelloRaptor Except the power curve isn't part of the player setting. You're all neonates or apprentices. The elders and masters are NPCs. It is a problem with the conversion of a tabletop to an always-on game that runs for multiple years and has a steady influx of new people. Arguing that there is a power curve in the setting is ridiculous, as most settings attempt to provide a societal framework of some sort, which almost invariably includes haves and have-nots.

More often than not the only substantial difference between an oppressive Elder who jerks you around at every opportunity run by a Storyteller, and an oppressive Elder who jerks you around at every opportunity run by a player, is that the former is Business As Usual Nothing To Complain About while the latter is a Meanie Cheater Who Cheats.

I consider 'a steady influx of new people' to be a design flaw, though.

@Coin

In fact, I think they would be more fun as one-sphere games, where everything is an insane arcane mystery or everything that goes bump in the night is a target.

This isn't really the case for Mage. Not for me, anyway. No ST is ever going to be able to put even remotely the amount of work that has gone into, say, Werewolf or Changeling as the actual books that people play with have. Roleplaying with them and delving into what their deal is, is a lot of fun. Few, if any STs are going to have the time or interest in playing that out like you can between PCs.

There are plenty of random Things That Go Bump In The Night and arcane mysteries as it is. Storytellers have been making them up for ages. While a mage-only game would certainly work by itself, calling it 'more fun' is probably only true for those who whine about anybody who's potentially (or actually) more powerful than them.