Posts made by Warma Sheen

I found this link as one of the more recent articles about China's political pressure machine that has a lot of the stuff I mentioned and a few other examples. There's lots of material out there if you're looking for it. This just happens to have a lot of examples in one place and has more on the hotel guy that got fired.

Just in case someone wanted more examples about slighting China, emphasis on 'slight': http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/lebron-jamess-statement-on-china-was-disappointing.html

With 1.4 billion people and being more capitalist than communist in recent years, obviously there is a lot of money to be made in China so I can't imagine anything but a hands off approach to them. But that's why I think a bigger push should be made towards India, who is expected to soon surpass China in population and is less 'hostile' in relation to the US. But no country is perfect and the US has plenty of its own problems so... grain of salt and all that.

The use of sports in aiding diplomacy has a long history, though, in several different countries. So there's more to be gained than just profits with situations like these. Spreading culture and opening lines of communication that weren't there before are more valuable in the long run than they might appear.

And yeah, when you talk about any organization as big as the NBA separating politics and economics isn't realistic, especially once a focus on something draws all eyes. I don't think this situation would have been as bad if not for the current trade war or the US issues with Huawei. China is on the defensive already of all things American and if this is just another proxy battle, then the US lost handily and exposed one of its greatest weaknesses: $$$

@Auspice said in The Basketball Thread:

@Warma-Sheen said in The Basketball Thread:

But that just seems... weak... I guess?

That's easy to say. And cruel, too.

It is easy. That's kind of the point. For all of us. Me, you and Morey. We can sit back comfortably from the comfort and safety of being behind our screens and give our opinions without very much risk - that we know of.

But I don't think its cruel. At all. Just calling it like I see it. If you feel strongly enough, stand behind it. If it costs you too much and you tuck your tail, then maybe you did what is best for you and yours. Not saying it is wrong. But own that it was a weak move.

And if we're going personal, I've been on both sides. I think most of us have in way or another. I've stood up for people and had other people stand up with me. And I've stood up for people and gotten my ass kicked, literally, too. And I've been the one that has needed people to stand up for me and no one did, until the truth finally came out, then I got to hear how people "always were on my side".

To sit there and sneer at a man who did what was right and found himself without anyone by his side.

But there's the question about what is 'doing the right thing'. Is a retweet 'doing the right thing'? Personally, I don't think a single retweet quickly retracted is doing much of anything. First a retweet is not even your own thought. And the timing of it is highly suspect. Was he not with the people of Hong Kong the first 5 months? It seems to me he just clicked a button offhand because it was trendy and here in the US we love democracy so why not... and didn't understand the holy hell that was about to rain down on him. And I don't consider that doing the right thing.

People who 'do the right thing' don't always start off intending to. Sometimes it is just something said or done offhand. But when the pressure comes they weather it, even when it takes everything from them whether anyone stands with them or not, because they knew that what they said was right and they were willing to hold to it. Had Morey kept his course, I'd hail him as a hero who did the right thing, but he didn't. He buckled. Again, that doesn't make him a bad person. He's just a guy who has his own concerns and life as well as a basketball team to manage. But he isn't someone who 'did the right thing' in my opinion.

How would you feel if, when you needed someone to stand up for you, and they did, but then when they got withering looks, slunk back down and said, "Nevermind, I was wrong to speak up". Is that 'the right thing'? Maybe it is just a difference in opinion, but I actually think that's ultimately worse.

But before labeling Morey this lonely soul, remember that the man caused a shitstorm and kept his job. You don't keep your job in that situation against the political and economic pressure of the entire nation of China without having more than a few powerful, decision-swaying people on your side. Firing him would have gone a long way to repairing the damage for both the Rockets and the NBA. And they did not. They had his back in a huge way. (Not to mention all the likes and tweets in support of him, which - ironically - don't seem to count as being on his side.)

@Rinel said in Echoes in the Mists - CoD 2e MU:

I really wanna try out mage, but I'm a bit worried that I'd get everything wrong.

Probably. I mean, not everything, but there is a learning curve. But that's kind of the fun of it. To learn how things work. Its kind of like actually apprenticing your magic, but on a much faster track. My most fun experiences have been learning the game while in the game.

My favorite was a tabletop of a Demon: the Fallen. It was World of Darkness so we were familiar with the basics of the "world" but none of us had or read DtF. The ST was the only one who knew anything about it and he ran us through from mortal to our becomings based on on what he knew we tended to play, then we came up with our own backstories as we learned more about the game. Because amnesia was built into the game mechanics, it worked fantastically.

But mage can work the same way. When learning 2.0 I had plenty of great RP sessions trying to cast stuff with other mages, then chatting about the mechanics oocly of what I did wrong or could have done better and workshopping things on channel because of all the options. In my case, I had never played 1.0 so it was a whole new learning session when I tried to learn 1.0 after I had already been familiar with 2.0. That didn't particularly end well, but it was fun while it was happening. It was super fun (imho) to try to icly explain game mechanics as expressed through the view of a particular Path or Legacy or whatever.

Just use the learning opportunity as an RP opportunity and you'll love it. I used to avoid mage like the plague, but now it is one of my favorites.

@Admiral Maybe. But that just seems... weak... I guess? Not sure the right word for it. To stand up to do what's right, then back down because other people don't support you? And not just back down, but make a full reversal.

Like, I support democracy over communism. And it sucks what people in Hong Kong have coming. But I wouldn't risk all that backlash over a tweet about it - unless I didn't know what I was risking. If he felt that strongly about it, there are probably more meaningful ways to help than a button on an app.

I don't think Morey knew the kind of backlash he would receive for himself, for his team or for the NBA as a whole. Admittedly, I wouldn't have thought one little tweet would have had such a major reaction. I was just as ignorant. But once I looked up a little bit about it, I learned that this is exactly what China does over things like this even to people much less important than the GM of an NBA franchise. They are ridiculously petty. I didn't know, but I'm not really surprised either.

There are a long list of people that have been targeted by the Chinese political machine. They had a Mariott hotel customer-care manager fired for liking a Tweet from a Mariott account because it involved a survey listing Tibet and China as separate countries. A bunch of clothing makers, big and small, have had to apologize publicly on the sovereignty of China for depicting simple silhouette representations of the country of China on clothes without including Taiwan or Tibet or Macao or Hong Kong, or any combination of the above as part of the country. They are super anal and vindictive about stuff like that and have been for a long time.

So in that regard, Morey was definitely ignorant. Either that or he knew what might happen and just didn't care - which isn't likely based on his apology. However, specifically because the Houston Rockets organization had a special relationship with China, he definitely should have known.

Edit: I'll also add that to me, the craziest part of this whole thing is that after costing untold millions of dollars to the Rockets and the NBA in general with one retweet, he still kept his job.

@Arkandel said in The Basketball Thread:

@Warma-Sheen said in The Basketball Thread:

Or... are you saying that because he spoke up on that issue that's now obligated to speak up on all issues?

He didn't have to speak at all. If he had done nothing I would have been fine with it - there's no reason or way for someone to champion all fights.

But he did, and he spoke against others taking a stand.

He didn't. He spoke about the way it was done and the affect it had on others. He didn't say anything about the content of the message. He said that specifically.

@Auspice said in The Basketball Thread:

@Arkandel said in The Basketball Thread:

LeBron specifically and publicly wanted to play the role of a man who won't shut up and dribble, and he's failed to live up to that when real money was on the line.

Not true at all.

What LeBron wants isn't to champion everyone's cause everywhere. Like you said. It isn't all or nothing. He'll speak up for what he believes in when he wants to. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Or... are you saying that because he spoke up on that issue that's now obligated to speak up on all issues?

And bullshit that real money wasn't on the line when he did speak up about the way police treat black people in the US. That's also just not true. Quite the opposite.

Every endorsement LeBron has, of which he makes more money on than the salary he draws playing basketball ($89m total, $53m off court), was at risk by entering an exceptionally volatile conversation both personally and professionally by wearing those shirts at games. Because like he said, actions have consequences. And despite repeatedly saying what his issues were, people wanted to make them about something else: disrespecting the flag, not supporting the troops. And then people bought into that and labeled him unAmerican. Whatever. And LeBron had no idea what endorsements would decide that he's too political to represent them. He put all his money at risk.

It doesn't obligate him to be the world's protector whenever they want to speak up. It isn't up to everyone else to decide what he needs to stand up and protect.

@Arkandel said in The Basketball Thread:

For starters he is sending an inconsistent message as well as a wrong one. For example in the interviews he gave lately he suggested people can't be educated and shouldn't criticize situations about far-away places they've not experienced themselves; what about Akron, Ohio? I'm not a black kid being abused by the police there, should I not care? And if I do why wouldn't I care about Chinese kids in Hong Kong openly threatened by a superpower's Head of State with 'shattered bones'?

I haven't seen or heard of any interviews like that. I tried to find them but couldn't. If you could link those, I'd definitely like to check them out.

@Arkandel said in The Basketball Thread:

So what is the worse case scenario here? LeBron got slower than normal room service while he was there? He's in the final few years of his career and has a guaranteed $1B contract with Nike alone - are we supposed to feel bad because he might make less money going forward?

He's not just talking about himself. There are others on both the Nets and the Lakers that don't have his pull or his money. And what about the equipment manager? What about the assistant equipment manager. There are a lot of people in the NBA team wagon who don't have LeBron's money or pull who are also there with him when this goes down who are also targets. And they aren't in Hong Kong where support for the fight for democracy is high. They are in Shenzhen and Shanghai, where the opposite is true.

So no, the worst case scenario isn't just slow room service. Its more like having things thrown at you, people spitting on you, knives waved at you, or having to lock yourself in your room like a prisoner to avoid something happening to you. When he says he and his teammates got to spend a lot more time together, he's not talking about going out partying at the clubs together. Just the fact that they flew all the way out to China to try to promote basketball there, all of which was negated by this guy's one tweet which could have been done in the MONTHS before or any time after, has to be frustrating. None of which I'd be happy or okay with. Especially not for someone else's ill-timed tweet. Especially not from someone that won't even stand behind it to save their own job. Screw that. If anything, James was exceptionally calm about it.

And as he said, it wasn't about the content of the message that annoyed LeBron, it was that other people had to deal with the inevitable fallout. He said freedom of speech has consequences. It does. He said other people have to suffer them sometimes. They do. Here's the full initial interview in case anyone is interested. If there are more, please link them. I'd like to see if there was more he said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjM43blzaRc

On a further note, I understand that some people will take any opportunity to hate on LeBron James. He's been disliked for a long time by a lot of people in a lot of places for a lot of different reasons. I have at different times been part of that group. I would like to point out, though, as unpopular as the opinion might be: I think its super disingenuous to nitpick one person to try to turn them into this Communist super-supporter when almost everyone continues to choose their own financial and person interests over condemning China.

How many people in the US just got that new Call of Duty mobile game? It was like #2 on iTunes the day it came out a few weeks ago. How many people still buy things 'made in China'? It is super hypocritical to try to bash on LeBron for being concerned about money when the entire country continues to support China financially while ignoring its long track record for human rights abuses, long before this thing in Hong Kong which has been a 20 year inevitability since the UK withdrew. Is there anyone who hasn't deferred to China's favor? Mercedes, Apple, Marvel, Versace, CBS, whoever just made the Top Gun sequel and decided that in the last 20 years the Taiwanese flag patch just happened to fall off of Maverick's jacket... Its everyone, including every day US citizens, the same ones portraying LeBron as the devil. China makes sure of it. But it is so easy for people to hate on others then do nothing themselves.

Just pointing that out in case it got lost.

Also, I'm not sure why I'm wound up about this. I'm not even a big LeBron fan. I respect him a lot more than I did in his younger years, but I'm no fan. But this really bugged me.

@Auspice said in The Basketball Thread:

His 'actions have consequences' was because he shit-talked Morey's Tweet, saying 'He wasn't educated about...'

Morey said that about himself in his apology post. So either he really wasn't educated about the issue or he tucked his own integrity to keep his job. Either way, that's all on Morey. And the protests have been going on for months. He just happened to pick a time to say something when one of his conference's biggest opponents were there. Whether that was on purpose or not, his ignorance might have caused serious problems for people. Being stuck overseas in a politically hostile country is no small joke.

I have a co-worker, Michael White, currently imprisoned for some indeterminate time (years) in Iran on what is basically a political dispute when he went to visit someone. They won't even say why. The best the consulate can come up with it was based on pro democratic views he expressed either there or from something he posted online.

A friend of mine was traveling on his way home from Mount Everest when the US decided to have the CEO of Huawei arrested in Vancouver. My friend's connection was out of China and his flight got canceled. He and several other people in the airport were then arrested for overstaying the 1 day visa that was allowed for the connection. He had to pay something close to $1000 to be released.

China's issues with the US can get dangerous for Americans there so 'had a hard week' might be downplaying what they experienced there.

Also, Kaep's protests were about the treatment of black people in the USA by police authorities, a cause LeBron protested on himself, a cause he's got a personal connection to (being black and living in the USA). Kaep lost his career over his actions, which included endorsements - but he stood behind what he believed in despite what it cost him. LeBron was willing to risk the same to protest in his own way when he wore shirts that had Eric Garner's last words on them. But people so quickly forget about that.

Morey, on the other hand immediately issued an apology and reversal in the most groveling way possible.

As for China, they have a huge, long history of human rights abuses, but people still do business with them all the time. And almost no one speaks out about it. And no one gives all those people shit about not speaking out about it. Its a huge double standard for people that just like to hate on others whenever they can from the comfort of their homes.

TLDR:

Personally, I don't think supporting Kaepernick's (and his own) right to protest here in the US where that right is constitutionally protected is quite equal to Morey's offhand tweet about Chinese (which he is not) in China (where he is not) that he either doesn't know anything about or doesn't have enough spine to stand behind.

If Morey isn't willing to stand behind his own words, especially after all the stir he caused for himself, his team and the NBA in general, why does anyone expect LeBron to? Just because LeBron supported one person's protest doesn't mean he has to support every idiot who wants to speak up about something. Not all protests are created equal.

What science doesn't know about the brain is voluminous.

I believe ADD is just the brain functioning at at increased speed, the way a baby/child's does as it learns the world around it. Eventually as you grow older that shuts off and slows down, except sometimes it doesn't.

For whatever reasons, people have decided the way to address this is to slow the brain down with medicine rather than speeding up life and learning. If it helps people be more "normal", then cool. But would anyone try to slow down Usain Bolt? There should be more enhanced educational programs that utilize the increased brain functionality in children rather than labeling it a problem to stigmatize people for thinking too quickly. Haters gonna hate.

Remember when science also thought lobotomies were proper solutions for people that weren't considered normal? And the list of things science has been and will be wrong about can go on and on and on... Especially when most science is backed by pharmaceutical companies. Opioid crisis anyone? But these are the same people doctors take money from to push their drugs and we trust it? Okay.

@Ghost said in All Our Heroes:

there should be no OOC angst.

And yet there always is. And it always comes back to the same thing. Some people will use any means necessary to win the MU and that includes using ooc as a tool/weapon.

You have to get rid of the root of the problem, not just hope the problem suddenly decides to become reasonable.

I guess I must have missed when LeBron supported China...

What was it that he said? Cause I caught the 'actions have consequences' part, but must have missed the 'I'm with China' part.

Ugh. People are just the worst.

@TNP Nopes. I'm not signing up for alien abductions.

@Rinel I was the same. I watched the show first on Syfy, so Seasons 1 and 2, then (since it was cancelled) I picked up the books cause I loved the show so much that I just had to know what happened with everything. The story was too good to just stop there. And I loved the books even more. Then Amazon picked the show back up and now I'm in the middle of watch Season 3. Still great.

For those that have read the books, but not seen Season 3, Amazon really lets Chrisjen be who she is in the books in a way that SyFy did not (or could not). It is fantastic.

I love it when you can enjoy the books and the TV show (or movie) at the same time. It doesn't always happen, but even with different story choices for media reasons, the stories just really flow together. Although it is super weird that the TV show series seems to begin and end in the middle of each book, it doesn't feel off at all.

I also love that they've included most, if not all of the Expanse novellas. You can tell the people working on the show have a love of the material.

As far as Science Fiction on TV goes, The Expanse has been one of the best things I've enjoyed in a really long time. Sadly, that was specifically what SyFy was going for when it dumped the budget into it that it did, but it also got cancelled because of that budget.

I don't have regular TV anymore so I don't watch this show, but I'll always appreciate it for the first season's winner, T-Pain.

It really tells you something about the music industry (or at least the mainstream music industry) that one of the most autotuned voices in music history can actually sing. The people at his record label (RCA) determined that the gimmick of being autotuned was somehow more profitable than an actual talented singing voice. WTF.

They wouldn't let him produce his albums without being autotuned and then when people started hating autotune they just wouldn't let him produce albums. He actually asked to be let out of his contract and they wouldn't - just in case autotune came back into popularity. They didn't want someone else to cash in. Eventually he had to throw together some crap that sounded more "current" just to finish out his contract and be able to move on and make music without autotune.

So if you're one of those people out there (like me) that thinks 90 percent of music out today is just trash, this is a perfect example of why.

Good on The Masked Singer to put the focus back on talent in music... even if they do it in the weirdest way possible.

@TiredEwok Thanks. I always wanted to try the Arkham Asylum lines but just never got around to it. I was just about to buy some on steam for 75 percent off. But free is a much better deal.

@Thenomain said in Consent in Gaming:

I don't know what changed that people decided that it couldn't work without rules and code and things that made it more like asking permission to get a cookie than "yar, I raid the cookies, I am the cookie king, muahahaha!"

Like melting polar ice, the world drowned itself because it refused to seriously address its own bad behavior despite the many obvious catastrophes and numerous calls for action.

People got jaded. People got paranoid. People got burned.

Jaded people got paranoid of being burned.

@mietze said in Consent in Gaming:

I find that the vast majority of time there's a consistent troublemaker who erodes the IC and OOC goodwill around them with their IC and OOC behavior, it is largely because either they don't grasp that, or they really don't care--and normally the former rather than the latter, since by the time I've ended up talking to them usually it's because they are sad/upset that they have burned so many other bridges to get to that point.

Sometimes for whatever reason there are some players who can get away with it on a game or for a time, and when the situation changes they are often hurt and upset and can't understand why other people don't just want to roll with it and enjoy their story. Unfortunately, there sometimes just isn't a lot of patience to sit down with someone and work through that and help them sort it out, for a lot of understandable reasons.

This occurs often with people who believe that the game they are playing is "their story". When in fact, it is everyone's story. Unless you're going to run multiple instances of a MU, like different dimensions, stories will run into each other. Everyone can't be the lead all the time.

It also occurs on games where there are few consequences for bad behavior, both IC and OOC.

Chontio was really fun with a cool concept. RL got me and I wasn't happy with the character I had made so I kind of gave up on making the time. My faults on both ends. The game itself was very good.

There were certain things that made it good where others have not been so good, but I don't think its unique to SW. Its just the way games are run. One thing is theme. There's a definite theme to the game and the setting reinforces it. It isn't just the sandbox everyone plays in, it is part of the theme in a way that people are unable to ignore. Most games don't spend enough time on the setting. They just pick a place and overlay their game onto it. PCs then ignore at their leisure and no one says anything about it.

The second thing they did well was stress the rarity of force users - then let anyone play one. But rather than just leave the distinction there, the force was worked into the plot lines in ways that were obviously there, but I wasn't able to stick around long enough to get details on. There are only so many PCs on a game. Even if every player is a 'special', it would still be drowned out compared to the millions or billions of people in the game universe. And since the staff gets to come up with the theme there are numerous ways to work that into the setting and plot. And if for some reason you can't work that in, then no one gets to play one. Letting some but not others fill a force user role is a dangerous recipe for early game death, if only for reasons of public perception.

There were a couple of other things that they did well, but the end result of most of it is summed up as: dedicated staff. You can't run a good game without dedicated staff and they did a very good job of focusing content into the game that people wanted to engage with rather than some places which just toss out fluff out of obligation to 'run something'. Its so annoying to feel like you're in a scene where it feels like the ST (player or staff) is just running the scene to fill some quota and really couldn't care less about the outcome or how it affects the story or the characters involved.

I've been in many, many SW -combat scene #223948- where bad guys are thrown at PCs like cannon fodder and staff call themselves having created plot. That, actually, is both very annoying and very common to SW games.

@Sunny said in What MU/RPG opinions have you changed or maintained?:

I've totally given that up in favor of #1 priority being 'everyone enjoying themselves' -- it doesn't always work, and sometimes there are conflicting goals and things, but I think it's a better approach to the hobby than IC being sacrosanct like I used to feel.

It is a good approach. I just hate when people use that as a shield of impunity to whine and complain about consequences because that's not fun for them i.e. it would ruin the character, or that's not where the character progression would go, or it takes away my agency, etc....

It is made worse by people's openness to what they consider "enjoyment". Some people won't have fun if any bit of control is taken away from them. Example: Every time there is a game plot that holds PCs in a particular location, like a big storm or a magical barrier, for any length of time without fail there are people complaining that "it is killing their rp." They can't or won't expand their horizons to enjoy themselves and many times the same people complaining about lost rp are the ones who sit ooc 24/7 and never rp anyway.

It gets exhausting sometimes to try to go through options A to Q trying to find a response that the other person will accept without complaint or snark until you just have to give up and say 'Okay, nevermind, My character will just completely ignore that you wrecked his business for shits and giggles'. You really can't be responsible for other people's enjoyment.

But this is why people clique up. Because if you find good people to play with who share the mentality that everyone's enjoyment is important, it rocks socks.

Add that to my list. I used to think cliques hurt games because people got left out, now I don't think they are all that bad. I definitely understand the appeal to RP just with friends and people with shared values. So much more enjoyable.