Tali'Thread vas Clan Zorah nar BSN 6.0

[Alienmorph]

Yes, Shotacon is the correct term. In some cases is even more blatant than lolicon. Also there's the whole femboys thing, that comes from Japanese culture being very sexually segregated and thus fascinated with the idea of people toying with their role in society at such a basic level. Almost every major manga or anime has either a token masculine girl or feminine boy these days. Sometimes can be funny or even charming, but others... not so much.

Bottom line, as I said, there is such thing as going too far. I don't like censorship, and I have yet to find anyone bringing up a solid argument for why we need huge amounts of it getting in the way of our entertainment, but even I have come across a few instances of "whoa tone it down a peg!" and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

[Vol]

Given Japan is a remarkably homogeneous nation, the "rules" for bonding with people would logically be well understood and taught. So what could cause that inability to pair bond _but_ economic realities?

Though I generally interpret Japanese characters in high school to be totems for adult beliefs, as a mixture of yearning for those years and the mandatory structure, a lack of creativity, and a genuinely interesting time in life to explore a person. Go younger, it gets murkier, granted. And then sometimes it's explicitly for deviant tastes.

No reasonable people think the Persona games are doing something wrong by having these 14-18 year olds falling in love for the first time, having implied sex, wearing skimpy outfits, and dealing with rape/murder/abuse/spiritual threats while also going to school. It can be gaudy, and the characters can explicitly act, think, and speak like teenagers, but it doesn't resonate the same way as other, simpler works, because they really are adult totems. The cast of P4 exemplified this in both expressing the youthful fear of growing into an adult, but also the mature hindsight of looking back on it by the end of their arcs.

@Alien: I'm against censorship in principle. To my own detriment, really. I would rather have heinous people say/draw/write heinous things, then have them hide away and fester and do God knows what out of sight. Though this belief is sorely tested sometimes.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAl9SayLzTE

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyxoWw4ZfS4

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8JuINv5P4I

[Alienmorph]

And Last of Us II officially goes full Last Jedi and blames the negative user scores on review sites on "Russian 'bots review bombing" lol

[TheodoricFriede]

And Last of Us II officially goes full Last Jedi and blames the negative user scores on review sites on "Russian 'bots review bombing" lol

Sony blaming fans by calling them racist or sexist or whatever is kind of par for the course. They started that immediately when people reacted poorly to the horrible, horrible, trailer for the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot.

They also used to do it with all the Adam Sandler crap. Its basically Sony USA's primary marketing strategy.

[Sinekein]

No reasonable people think the Persona games are doing something wrong by having these 14-18 year olds falling in love for the first time, having implied sex, wearing skimpy outfits, and dealing with rape/murder/abuse/spiritual threats while also going to school. It can be gaudy, and the characters can explicitly act, think, and speak like teenagers, but it doesn't resonate the same way as other, simpler works, because they really are adult totems. The cast of P4 exemplified this in both expressing the youthful fear of growing into an adult, but also the mature hindsight of looking back on it by the end of their arcs.

I've never played a Persona game, but from all I have gathered the characters are multi-dimensional, so even if some are more or less fanservicey (the few designs I've seen don't exactly look like they're straight out of a hentai anime), it is but one aspect of their personality. I assume it is similar to Mass Effect, where with the notable exception of the stupid journalist from 3, all characters with fanservice aspects have enough depth and appeal for it not to be the end of their characterization (Miranda or Liara, but also Thane or Vega if we're talking about dudes).

It's already a lot more wonky with Fire Emblem where characterization is way more superficial and gimmicky, especially in the episodes that were most guilty of gratuitous fanservice (Awakening & Fates). You can sum up the entirety of Nowi's, Selkie's or Camilla's characters in two sentences (okay, maybe three for Camilla since she gets more focus as a Royal). And it has been milked like crazy by the Fire Emblem Heroes mobile game, which is now straight up a gacha for waifus. It started rather conservatively with Anna and Sharena (whose design I quite like), it started to go South with Laevateinn, Laegjarn and Loki (which is roughly when I stopped playing it), and the new exclusive characters look like this or this. And that's without going into bikini versions of characters such as Elise or Tiki as a kid.

When you look at the artists that draw the art for the game, you realize that more often than not they commission people who mostly draw hentai.

And then you have the games where the characters' entire point is to be titillating while looking like they're roughly 14. They don't have a characterization outside from that. I can understand a company not wanting to be associated with game designers who plan on cashing in on some of humanity's lowest instincts. It's not like there is any pretense that it's done for the art.

[Azint]

So, I bit the bullet and bought The Last of Us Part II.

I was initially stoked for it, because I immensely enjoyed the first game, but then the big leaks happened and morbid curiosity got the best of me. It wasn't just the content of the leaks that made me turn against the game, but it was the behind-the-scenes shenanigans at Naughty Dog that would have cemented it. I bought the game for the sake of the poor staff that was mistreated, verbally abused, and overworked, not because I want to give a dime to the higher-up in-house or at Sony.

I've put a lot of time into it, but I'm not yet finished, even though I already know what happens thanks in part to a friend of mine who marathoned it, and our discussion about it afterwards. The game itself, on a technical level is fine, it functions, it looks nice, it plays like the first but a little smoother. But I'm still immensely displeased with it. The story is awful, the characters are awful, the dialog is awful, the themes are tired and have been done far better and with more restraint many, many times before. I don't like using the term "pandering" yet this is the only way to describe these petty attempts at earning brownie points with LGBTQ+ people, because the context is fucking stupid and these people should be insulted by it and not appeased.

► Show Spoiler

Joel does indeed die relatively early in the game. It's an immensely stupid scene because Joel, the hardy and pragmatic survivor we've come to understand if not agree with, suddenly forgets every other lesson he taught Ellie and blindly walks into his own death by openly trusting people he didn't know. Abby herself, Joel's killer and real star of the game, takes a really sadistic pleasure in beating him to death. We're supposed to understand her motivation for revenge because Joel killed her father, yet we don't spend enough time with Abby to empathize with her and she comes across as extremely unlikable. Ellie herself loses a lot of what made us like her, and this isn't maturity or positive character development, Ellie just becomes unrelentingly negative and dark.

Some of these story decisions are by design, because this is supposed to be a dark story for mature people, but it comes off so much like a cry for attention in a dumb teenager's fanfic. This game takes itself seriously, and it's a massive detriment because it forgot that it was supposed to be a fucking video game and tries to be an oppressive experience instead. This game pulls a Spec Ops The Line and tries to guilt-trip the player for playing their own story, and it fails miserably here. Why should we care about the names of the people we kill when they're the ones instigating everything? It's just bad story-telling, and worse the writers are jerking each other off with their own dialog because they think they're deep and that this is a meaningful experience.

Abby is unlikable, and we don't spend enough time with her and her motivations to make killing Joel a thing we the players, who have already beforehand spent hours in his shoes, something we can accept. I'm not criticizing the decision, it's the execution and what they're trying to make us feel about it. It's not a tragedy, it's just bullshit. Ellie has lost all of her charm, and she's become the worst part of every edgy 90's comic book/action hero character who's hellbent on getting revenge and thinking with blinders on. Dina, Ellie's lover, is awful because she's just there to serve Ellie's negative character arc, and she doesn't express much character of her own apart from that she's Jewish, bi, and pregnant. Jesse, who could have been an interesting character is spared from being in a mediocre story and is instead killed by Abby early on because she's so cool and bad.

I hate this game, and this is one of the few times where I feel the 10/10 is entirely undeserved. This isn't a matter of it being someone's opinion, this is plain denial of the flaws of this game's story. And evidently the story is first and foremost here because they forgot to make the game fun. Even if the game is technically functional, there has to be justification for this experience, and there isn't any besides trying to make the player miserable. I am miserable here, and it's not in the intent of the writers, it's because I am so livid at how poorly handled everything going on is in the story. Unless someone cans Neil Druckman, this is the last time I touch a Naughty Dog game.

[TheodoricFriede]

I hate this game, and this is one of the few times where I feel the 10/10 is entirely undeserved.

Remember.

Game Informer also game Mass Effect 3 a 10/10.

[Vol]

Remember a bit over a decade ago, when we still had gold standard vidya companies? It seems quaint in hindsight. No matter how much other crap was coming out, or how hard studios were copying CoD, there was still Blizzard, Valve, Rockstar, Bioware, etc.

Only Rockstar has, more or less, come through the years with a pedigree intact. While I don't play their games hardcore like I used to, or agree with their super budget direction completely, they still produce consistently quality work.

[TheodoricFriede]

Only Rockstar has, more or less, come through the years with a pedigree intact. While I don't play their games hardcore like I used to, or agree with their super budget direction completely, they still produce consistently quality work.

But in return we have new companies like CD Projekt Red, and the entire japan resurgence.

Its more that American companies have gone to shit.

[Vol]

CDPR has me nervous with what I hear about Cyberpunk, but I'm hopeful. Otherwise, yeah, Japan's doing the heavy lifting right now, weirdly enough. Their love of the derivative, but with style, is producing quality art.

[magnuskn]

I plan on keep gaming for as long as I can, it's a hobby I enjoy, I don't give a shit if people have a problem with it (especially since most folks at this points waste hours of their freetime in b.s. appgames on their phones anyway) and there's so much stuff I'd like to play already out that if I just stuck to what I have in my Steam library and don't buy anything else, I'd probably have enough to last me for several years.

I'll be 45 next month, so I can confirm that gaming is still very, very enjoyable at that age. Just spent about a week in World of Warcraft farming mounts, to get to the 250 mount achievement (which awards you another mount, which I particularly wanted for my Demon Hunter). Very gratifying feeling to have tangible progress on something like that in a compressed amount of time.

[Grand Admiral Cheesecake]

I think I might be one of the younger people here honestly. I'll be 27 this year and I didn't really start getting into gaming till I was in my teens. Figure I'll keep at it though.

Also recently made a bit of a minor return to Tabletop a few years back. Been interesting to use discord and roll20 as a medium. Even tried my hand at DMing now.

[magnuskn]

CDPR has me nervous with what I hear about Cyberpunk, but I'm hopeful.

Aside from the second delay, which I welcome for quality management, as long as the game still releases this year (next year I need my vacation to visit my mom in Paraguay), I haven't heard anything concerning about the game. What in particular concerns you?

I think I might be one of the younger people here honestly. I'll be 27 this year and I didn't really start getting into gaming till I was in my teens. Figure I'll keep at it though.

Also recently made a bit of a minor return to Tabletop a few years back. Been interesting to use discord and roll20 as a medium. Even tried my hand at DMing now.

We are returning to play by meeting up this week for the Tuesday group and already did last Friday for that group. However, we kept the Friday group going through Roll20.com and Microsoft Teams for a few months, which did work out fine. Only thing I needed to get was a webcam and learn a bit how to GM with Roll20.

[Grand Admiral Cheesecake]

Honestly I don't and have never even owned a webcam. Just doing things through pure voice was an interesting challenge at first but I adapted to it.

Currently running a Warhammer Fantasy game, a ASoIaF setting Game, with plans to run a Star Wars FFG game soon enough.

[Sinekein]

CDPR has me nervous with what I hear about Cyberpunk, but I'm hopeful. Otherwise, yeah, Japan's doing the heavy lifting right now, weirdly enough. Their love of the derivative, but with style, is producing quality art.

Japan business models for video games are way more satisfying. In the West it looks like there is no real middle ground between "one game a year" companies like EA, Ubisoft or Activision where you basically pay to update your authorization to play online with very minor changes to the games themselves, or "one game a decade and then just wait" like Rockstar or Valve. In Japan sequels tend to be released quickly enough so that you're not left with a game that becomes more and more dated, but also with enough time to ensure the finished product is actually worth buying.

For the record I would add Firaxis to the "quality bunch". There have been some mediocre games like Beyond Earth but their flagship products in the Civ and XCOM series are solid.

[TTTX]

CDPR has me nervous with what I hear about Cyberpunk, but I'm hopeful. Otherwise, yeah, Japan's doing the heavy lifting right now, weirdly enough. Their love of the derivative, but with style, is producing quality art.

ehh the Witcher 3 was also delayed servel times before being released.

[magnuskn]

Honestly I don't and have never even owned a webcam. Just doing things through pure voice was an interesting challenge at first but I adapted to it.

Currently running a Warhammer Fantasy game, a ASoIaF setting Game, with plans to run a Star Wars FFG game soon enough.

Well, for us it was something we wanted, since we normally meet in person. If you are playing with strangers, only voice will probably do.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKgvVS53e9s

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_NNyXaBW-I

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOGwx3Ju6QQ

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpSFn40uY1Y

[TheodoricFriede]

Woo! Lookin' cool Joker!

[TheodoricFriede]

I bought a bottle of absinthe today, because I remembered it existed, and how much I loved the spirit. I hadn't had any in several years.
I got bottle of Jade 1901. It is a positively exquisite drink. I forgot just how much I loved it.

You have to like the taste of black licorice (or more accurately anise), but it truly is a drink like no other.

[Vol]

How is absinthe? I've been meaning to try the ole green fairy, with the fancy spoon and sugar and ritual. Just had gin for the first time, which is rather like drinking a Christmas tree, and I'm told absinthe is intensely herbal.

[Mobius_118]

It's like Jaegermeister, but stronger.

To get the good stuff you need someone overseas to ship it to you.

[TheodoricFriede]

How is absinthe? I've been meaning to try the ole green fairy, with the fancy spoon and sugar and ritual. Just had gin for the first time, which is rather like drinking a Christmas tree, and I'm told absinthe is intensely herbal.

There are a lot of myths about absinthe, so you kind of have to start with what its NOT like.

It doesn't get you high or make you hallucinate. It doesn't make you go crazy. It is not meant to be set aflame. It is not a brilliant, vibrant, jolly rancher green. It is not banned anymore (technically it never even was).

REAL absinthe is a very earthy green color.** Sometimes even gold. As you said, it is very herbal. It tastes strongly of anise (licorice). It's also very smooth, almost creamy. It's very botanical. The proper way to prepare it is to slowly drip ice cold water into room temperature absinthe. This causes the natural oils in the drink to get drawn out, hence why it turns from green to a creamy white. Generally its only 1oz absinthe to 3 - 5oz water. Basically you are getting it to about 12 - 14% abv.
Sugar is optional. You definitely want to try no sugar (or a half of a cube) first, and then adjust as necessary. It does bring out more flavor though.

All of that is an incredibly long winded way of saying that it is very unique. I LOVE absinthe. I forgot how much I actually enjoyed it. A bottle isn't cheap, but it does last a loooong time due to the preparation process. you only use 1 oz of the actual liquor. Most of what you are filling the glass with is water. Also it keeps well, provided you store it the right way (Capped/corked, room temperature, avoiding light).

**For context, before water is added.
Real: https://66.media.tumblr.com/5d0408eae0bc42b04b9bc04ec65462be/tumblr_ofmkoxNgH61qdnew6o1_1280.png
Fake: https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.rLM01EtiIjDVZNXnbK1tVwHaHn?pid=Api&rs=1

[Sinekein]

FTR absinthe bans in Europe were due to people brewing it by themselves with only a very limited understanding of chemistry, which led to their absinthe bottles containing methanol instead of ethanol. If you buy it from a reliable producer it is no more dangerous than any other strong alcohol.

[TheodoricFriede]

FTR absinthe bans in Europe were due to people brewing it by themselves with only a very limited understanding of chemistry, which led to their absinthe bottles containing methanol instead of ethanol. If you buy it from a reliable producer it is no more dangerous than any other strong alcohol.

While that is not inaccurate, you also have to consider that the french wine industry launched a massive smear campaign. As I understand there was some pest killing the grapes, thus stunting wine production. Absinthe producers in France rose to fill the void, and the drink gained immense popularity.

Once the wine industry recovered, they did everything they could to destroy their new competitors.

[Sinekein]

Oh yes that is also true. And it worked so well that absinthe production was indeed reduced to nearly zero for a century...which led to the exponential growth of Pastis, an anise-based liquor that is still super popular in France, especially in the South (but as far as I know does not export well at all).

[TheodoricFriede]

which led to the exponential growth of Pastis, an anise-based liquor that is still super popular in France, especially in the South (but as far as I know does not export well at all).

Interesting. I would certainly like to try it one day.

As I understand most of the absinthe produced today is from either France or Sweden. The US has a few producers, but none that are both noteworthy, and also readily available. Delaware Phoenix is supposed to be excellent, but i dont think I could get it in Texas. theres a common one here called St. George, but its apparently very mediocre.

[Sinekein]

I did not know that. I assumed it was because of how all crazy 19th century poets were supposedly always drunk on absinthe, but apparently it's because the biggest absinthe brand was Pernod before the ban, and when it was banned the company moved on towards other drinks that had a similar taste (and is still a large alcohol producing company today). And now it is mostly famous for its anise liquor too, except theirs is called Ricard.

Since I am not a fan of anise, I cannot tell the difference between Pastis and Ricard, but amateurs usually favor one or the other. I just know that Marseille is where most anise drinks are produced in the country. You have many small breweries on the harbor who all have slightly different recipes, and my family always asks me to bring some bottles when I happen to be in the city.

[TheodoricFriede]

Well, perhaps i will get the chance to try it one day.

Also, for the Americans who may be interested, I forgot about Pacifique. That is a US absinthe brand that is actually quite good. jade 1901 is better though.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26airtzT8W0

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq8yCbaKPXc

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsO84jFwow8

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynesdjzxix0

[Vol]

https://www.vahvafitness.com/wp-content ... ercise.jpg

Getting my fucking legs up for 10 reps is hard enough, the amount of core strength this must take is absurd.

[NCLanceman]

GENTLEMEN.

They remixed and remastered the Deus Ex soundtrack.

If you don't think this is the dopest shit, I don't know what to tell you.

[Vol]

So, I bit the bullet and bought The Last of Us Part II.

*Snip*

I hate this game, and this is one of the few times where I feel the 10/10 is entirely undeserved. This isn't a matter of it being someone's opinion, this is plain denial of the flaws of this game's story. And evidently the story is first and foremost here because they forgot to make the game fun. Even if the game is technically functional, there has to be justification for this experience, and there isn't any besides trying to make the player miserable. I am miserable here, and it's not in the intent of the writers, it's because I am so livid at how poorly handled everything going on is in the story. Unless someone cans Neil Druckman, this is the last time I touch a Naughty Dog game.

I can almost see where they were trying to go with this. Obviously, not to make a game everyone hates, but to do something weird and deconstructive and artsy. They fucked up, and made what I'm hearing is a miserable, soul-draining experience. I have no intent to ever play it, but I would like to think it was bungling a high-minded attempt rather than malicious incompetence.

Did you learn from this?

GENTLEMEN.

They remixed and remastered the Deus Ex soundtrack.

If you don't think this is the dopest shit, I don't know what to tell you.

_The_ dopest? I dunno, the FC5 choral soundtrack was pretty dope, my dude.

[Sinekein]

Getting my fucking legs up for 10 reps is hard enough, the amount of core strength this must take is absurd.

During lockdown my dancing teacher sent videos with exercises to do to stay healthy, and there was a 2min long song we were supposed to do the plank through. I could hold it, although not much more, but then I checked and the world record is more than 8 hours.

Totally unrelated, but I heard a podcast about the history of the Suez Canal, and it was super interesting. It mentioned how the Egyptian leader back in 1869 threw a mega party for the inauguration, with tons of kings and queens being invited (but Victoria didn't come because at that time England wasn't happy about this canal being finished), a Verdi opera being created (Aida), and various extravagant projects being proposed to make it even greater. A French sculptor even proposed to build the statue of an Egyptian fellah (peasant) woman to honor the roman goddess Libertas at the entrance, but Ismaïl Pacha, the Egyptian leader, said no.

So a few years later, the same sculptor, that Bartholdi guy, recycled the idea he had when he got the funds to gift a statue to the U.S.A, and it ended in New York. And when the New Suez Canal was inaugurated in 2015, a statue was added, representing an Egyptian peasant woman, named Statue of Liberty.

[TheodoricFriede]

Don't mean to keep posting about absinthe, but if anyone is interested in separating the myths from the facts about the drink, as well as learning a bit of history, this is the website to do it.

http://www.wormwoodsociety.org/

I have known about it for a while, and sort of rediscovered it while I was looking for product reviews.

[Azint]

I can almost see where they were trying to go with this. Obviously, not to make a game everyone hates, but to do something weird and deconstructive and artsy. They fucked up, and made what I'm hearing is a miserable, soul-draining experience. I have no intent to ever play it, but I would like to think it was bungling a high-minded attempt rather than malicious incompetence.

Did you learn from this?

I don't know what to think, and I dare not try to get inside the heads of the people who made these creative decisions. I will concede that the game has a lot of positive things about it; I already admit that I thought the gameplay itself was fine, and that visuals were great and it ran well. I hated the majority of the characters, but the voice performances were never in question, the cast were all stellar and they clearly gave it their all in their performances. The music was good, too, and I admit I liked the guitar minigame. I just feel that all of this was wasted on an absolutely vile story with equally deplorable characters. I have my own project I'm working on that may or may not have been subconsciously been influenced by The Last of Us, and when I consider on how to move my own project forward I have a clear blueprint of that I don't want to do, at the least.

Anyway, I picked up Persona 5 Royal on a sale. I never did get to finish Persona 5 vanilla, and I didn't get much farther than after I did the Kamoshida story arc. Theo, I need your input here. What should I keep in mind before starting P5R? You may explain in as much detail as you want. I remember disliking the strict schedule system before.

[TheodoricFriede]

Anyway, I picked up Persona 5 Royal on a sale. I never did get to finish Persona 5 vanilla, and I didn't get much farther than after I did the Kamoshida story arc. Theo, I need your input here. What should I keep in mind before starting P5R? You may explain in as much detail as you want. I remember disliking the strict schedule system before.

Well, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, but you may need to be a bit more specific.

The schedule system isn't going anywhere. You're best bet is to just remember that you are not punished for finishing early. In fact it is in your best interest to go into a dungeon as prepared as possible, and finishing in as few days as possible.

Now that being said, you have WAY more time than you used to have. A lot of the mandatory Morgana "go to sleep" stuff has been removed. There are still limits, you'll need to sleep sometime, and sometimes you are confined to the Cafe, but you still have significantly more time than you used to.

If you want to do the new content as well as the old, there are three mandatory characters you need to level to max confidant rank. Kasumi, Maruki, and Akechi. It's good content, so its worth it.

Certain confidants that were downright necessary in vanilla, however, really dont matter as much anymore. The teacher is one example, because you get so much more time. Another example is Gamer Kid. He lost nearly all relevance, because ammo is now infinite.

I guess my main advice is that while it may seem like you have no time at all, you have a more time than you think you do to talk to everyone.

Sorry, like I said, i am happy to answer questions or offer advice, but it would help to know a bit more about what you want to know.

[Alienmorph]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MBE8flKW9k&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2MIUtw9RDdtVxVcnFxl4JaKCgX-AwLcVdvJ1sePLvfTvU3OnaVOfwC8y4

How to tell this game has been in the works for years... thei're still doing the "forget mutants, it's all 'bout the inhumans now" shtick from before the Fox buyout lol. And... MODOK's the "season 1" villain? I imagined he'd be around with AIM involved, but having him the first big villain on the series is kind of weaksauce... oh well, still curious to see if it'll work out.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0meaWFXuTzc

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-LzyecnJvs

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQPIV9Ov1MQ