Posts made by lordbelh

@Taika Crafting system, huh? I sympathize.

@Derp I read it, liked it. I don't think that it's his best novel, mind. But if you're into the geeky side of space travel and its difficulties, and find the idea of how weird life could be out in the cosmos, it's certainly worth the investment.

@Derp said in Book suggestions:

But the characters in it are absolutely adorable.

One of them is, anyway. I wasn't entirely on board with the development of the main character. Basically he knows all the science, and can apply it, but also has amnesia? He wasn't bad, mind, not enough to ruin the story for me. But I did find him a little bit lacking, and occasionally how he got to his solutions a bit contrieved.

I'm perfectly fine with people playing into wish fulfilment - I think everybody does it to a greater or lesser extent. The only time it becomes a problem is if your wish fulfilment has to come at the expense of someone else. You're not entitled to be the special one.

So you get to be super pretty, but you don't get to unequivically say you're the prettiest. You might be, but someone else might feel differently about it (and if you're running a stat game they might even be 'objectively' correct as far as the game's system and world is concerned.) The same goes for being smart, or badass or whatever. The moment you start getting possessive about your character's specialness, and find it annoying that others are stealing your shine, it's time to consider why you feel that way.

@arkandel It's pretty intuitive. You don't need to go down every rabbit hole of information. There's layers of complexity you don't need to understand immediately. That said, a lot of people who pick it up think of it as a map-painting game. Which it can be, sure, but as a newbie trying to paint the world a single color you're probably going to run into a whole host of troubles. It's a much more rewarding game if you just go with the flow. Do the best you can with one character after another, and accept that shit's gonna happen. You'll have good rulers, bad rulers, utterly incomptent rulers. Your grand plans are gonna fall apart. More powerful Kingdoms/Empires are gonna declare war on you, or on your liege, and you'll lose territory, but as long as you have an heir and at least one title, you'll be fine in the long run.

I really love it, I've got a campaign I play a few hours here and there. Leave it, come back to it, enjoy it again.

I play it on Steam, rather'n console, tho.

@ganymede said in Positivity Going Forward...:

@lordbelh said in Positivity Going Forward...:

If all you want is to be right, and meme-flame and feel righteous in your fury, then ok. ... It's easy to forget that the other person is a person, with their own fully realized internal life and experiences. Even if you're championing views that I share, the way you're doing it makes you part of the problem in my eyes.

I do not know what it is you're objecting to here, and I'd like to know. In what way am I part of the problem, if the problem you are referring to is public shaming?

Sorry, I'll have to edit my post as it isn't as clear as I'd liked. I agreed with your point. The 'you' in the quote applied to someone engaging in public shaming for its own sake. Not you as in you, @Ganymede

@ganymede said in Review of Recent Bans:

I think a substantial part of the community does not care for, and never cared for, the sort of public-shaming of the Hog Pit. And I now believe, after 20 years, that the idea that public shaming will cause a change in behavior is pretty vain, if not a pretext to simply being a shitty person.

I'm going to reply to this here, because it feels like the better thread for it.

If we're talking about the general public shaming that's involved in issuing a warning against a player, or a game, for shitty behavior, I like at least having an idea of the issues at hand. Even if it sometimes goes too far and becomes a dogpile just for its own sake.

But when it comes to the public shaming of opinions exchanged on these boards, then I'm in full agreement. I don't, and I've never liked it. If you want to change someone's mind, or even just have a semi-reasonable discussion, then the only way to do that is through two-way empathy. If you want someone to listen to your points, you have to be willing to listen in good faith to theirs. (Edit: Listening does not equal agreeing with, condoning or anything of the type. It just means listening, and acknowledging them as an actual person rather than a devil.)

Sure, they might not return the favor, but if you don't try then why would you ever expect them to either?

If all someone want is to be right, and meme-flame and feel righteous in their fury, then ok. But how does it help anyone? Anger can be a powerful motivator to take the fight against wrongs, and it's often warranted. But it's also a dangerous and seductive feeling. It's easy to get addicted to it. It turns discussions into just short-term euphoria opportunities where you can get your little shot of dopamine by pwning the other side, and then getting a second shot when notifications tell you others joined in. It's easy to forget that the other person is a person, with their own fully realized internal life and experiences. Even if you're championing views that I share, the way you're doing it makes you part of the problem in my eyes. I've seen plenty of it on these forums.

I can't say I'll miss all of that, if it lessen a little.

@faraday said in Positivity Going Forward...:

I applaud the shift to a more positive environment, but I'm skeptical as to whether the community has the bandwidth to really support multiple forums.

I share this concern. I've seen other hobby communities split, and devolve into little tribes bickering over pointless ancient scores, reducing the whole community as neither has enough members to actually foster a healthy group.

That said, I won't assume it'll go that way. It might. Or perhaps it'll be for the better. I honestly don't know, and since I'm not in a position of authority either way, I'll just go with the flow and keep up with lurking on two forums rather than just one.

@ganymede said in Review of Recent Bans:

I respect your opinion and follow your logic, but I disagree with a number of premises and ultimately your conclusion.

Fair enough, @Ganymede . I got no problem believing you're trying to do what you think is best. I see no evidence of malice. Just a lot of mistakes, and then doubling down on those mistakes. I suppose we'll see how it shakes out in the end. I sorta-kinda like this community, even with all its flaws, so ultimately I'm rooting for you.

I think the most constructive path forward would've been to just cancel every last ban that happened. They were an unhelpful over-reaction to a situation that would've burned itself out if the response hadn't been so pointlessly heavy-handed.

That they didn't follow Gany's request for silence was utterly predictable. This forum, along with its predecessors (and now successor forum), was based on the idea of a place to voice the community's opinions without being beholden to the powers-that-be on the various different games we play on. It was somewhere you could stand on your soap-box and decry abuses of power, and ridicule the small tyrants that make themselves large in insulated communities. And yeah, it was a place to meet, chat, have fun, and also revel in the positive aspects of our hobby.

But the foundation was always a pretty big fuck you to the man. There was simply no way your call for silence could've engendered any response but what it did, and when you decided to enforce your authority with bans, well, that enforced the idea that you were that petty tyrant. And the righteous thing was to tell you off.

Gany, you dealt with this like you were an arbiter in a court, aloof and above the rest. You're not and you never were. You were a custodian in a town square, and while your authority here on this site is absolute, it only really matters as long as the village thinks you're good.

There's now a new forum. There's a split in the community, and the community part of this forum is honestly the only reason I pay much attention to it, so I find that a real shame. A large part of the blame for that has to be on you mods. If we're now stuck with two paralell forums, and two town squares, the least you can do is throw an olive branch out and clean the slate on your part of this mess.

Sure, there were two sides. Frankly I found the initial Derp situation went way beyond what was reasonable. That Farfalla is back suggests the second situation wasn't. Either way, it was handled horribly.

So unban everybody. What does it cost? Nothing. If they asked to be banned in the heat of the moment, or threw out some angry words while angry, well, shit happens. People say and do things when angry and full of emotions. Making them have to come and ask to return is just petty, though. If you unban, perhaps they will. Perhaps they wont. But its one less divisive wound in the community, even if everybody continues to stay on their side of the new lines.

Just my thoughts.

@mietze Feel better. Take care of yourself.

Just finished Kuang's Poppy War. Really enjoyed it, and looking forward to Dragon Republic, which I've got on my shelf.

@ganymede I really liked it, even if the katana fetishizing at the start was a bit cringe. Watched an episode an evening until it was all done. Wouldn't have minded more.

@roz said in Sensitivity in gaming:

@lordbelh said in Sensitivity in gaming:

I think there are some valid arguments made in the video. There is a point where being sensitive tips over into the death of creativity, and the end result is that the only thing you're either allowed to or feel comfortable writing about is your own little bubble.

Honestly, this kind of sounds like the comedians who whine about "political correctness run amok" and not being able to make shitty jokes anymore.

Sure. It is the same fundamental logic and argument, at different points in its trajectory. I don't think sensitivity in gaming is wrong, or political correctness is some kind of evil. I think it ties into respect, and showing your fellow players a level of courtesy and respect is always good.

But I do think that at some point it becomes increasingly counter productive, going from helpful to dogmatic. Where that line is, I don't know exactly. If you disagree that there is a line, that's fine, I'm not going to call you names over it. I think its still an interesting conversation to have, because I don't have many answers. Got me thinking, though, which is what I took from the original video, even if I didn't feel the video was entirely honest or right about everything.

Say you put your fantasy setting in a arab inspired setting. How much research is expected? And how much from the game maker, and how much from the players? Who gets to decide what is appropriate, or too cliche, or downright offensive? Would you put a setting there at all, rather than a generic western culture approximation?

I think that's the sort of convo @Arkandel was looking for? Or I might be wrong about that, too. I'm not known for my high batting average.

@ganymede Well. I can't say I disagree with any of that. My point wasn't that you shouldn't consider others' opinions. Only that at some point I think it can become counter productive. That line's fluid, and changes regards go circumstances, with the caveat that at some point you're pretty much always in the wrong regardless of who your audience is, even if they cheer you on.

I think there are some valid arguments made in the video. There is a point where being sensitive tips over into the death of creativity, and the end result is that the only thing you're either allowed to or feel comfortable writing about is your own little bubble. I think that would be unfortunate. You can't please everybody, nor can you avoid offending somebody.

People from the same background can have vastly different trigger points. Minority populations can have different views than their ethnic majority cousins, for example re: appropriation, where a minority population might be possessive about their identifiers, while the same ethnicity while having the majority viewpoint are proud to see their cultural identifiers adopted by others. The Chinese Cheongsam dress is an example of this. I remember reading a while back @Ganymede giving a great dissection of its history and how its use comes off to them.

Where is the line? I don't know. Its probably quite fluid. Trying to be respectful is always good, but I do think there's only so much you can reasonably expect others to research and consider, unless you prefer that the only settings and characters we see are exactly who we are in real life.

Anyhow, I hope watching this video isn't going to get me more ben shapiro videos in my youtube stream. Because they're the worst. All I wanted was to listen to Joe Rogan talk about some MMA stuff, not go down the rabbit hole of idiocy.

Haven't played in a year I think, not since I was on Savage Skies. Which was a real good game with great people that I thoroughly enjoyed, but I fell out due to a work overload and never managed to get myself back into. Anyway, I had some real enjoyable RP the other night, and I just reminded me about why I fell for the hobby in the first place. Just letting the imagination go, and tossing ideas back and forth, building on each others' writing to craft something fun and engaging. Good times!

Perhaps it wont be a year until I do it again.

Anyone playing Among Us? I'm having a bunch of fun with it lately. It was never on my radar until someone linked me AOC playing it, and it seemed a hoot. Which it is!

@Arkandel Yeah, I like Red Queen better than Broken Empire. Mind, I still liked Broken Empire, but there were points where Jorg was just a bit too Jorg. Also, I think Book of the Ancestor, also by Mark Lawrence, is really good. I really dug the characters.

@Aria I put it off because I didn't want it to be over. Then I watched it and damn, I got a bit emotional. It's a friggin' comedy, it shouldn't give me all them feels.

Then I watched the whole after show thing with the cast, and I got more feels.

It was brilliant, and it was funny and it was smart and I'm sorry to see it go. But I'm glad it did go while I still loved it.

@GreenFlashlight said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@Auspice said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

The other day I did an hour of Just Dance. It was great. I felt great after.
The following day I could only manage 20 minutes.
The next day I couldn't make myself do it at all and just felt exhausted. Sluggish. Full fibro flare had come up..
Yesterday I slept until 2pm.
Today walking to/from the bus is torture.

I hate this. I hate how even finding a method of working out I like.....and my body is rejecting it. I hate how I WANT to get in shape.... I mean an hour may have been the issue and once I recover I should prob do less but I was having fun! I should be able to have fun and enjoy myself and not pay for it for days on end.

Maybe the problem is you're not giving yourself enough time to recover. I'm working out hard, and getting to the point where I'm getting a high from it, so I try to carry on the high by working out on my days off, right? I ruined a whole week like that, exhausted throughout because I was not giving my body time to rebuild everything I'd been tearing down. Because like an idiot, I forgot that highs by definition cannot be maintained.

I don't know how that interacts with fibromyalgia, but maybe taking a day between sessions would make things easier? If I'm being presumptuous, I apologize.

I can second the importance of having rest days. Getting older, I feel it takes longer for me to recover than it used to. I only do 3 days a week now, and while I try to get in a nice walk on my rest days, that's about the extent of it.

You can get away with a lot of things on this forum, and personally I'm happy to see a diverse cast of idea and opinions, including ones I wholeheartedly disagree with. But c'mon, why you gotta go there?