In a piece of formal writing, i would say the second is to be preferred because it looks better stylistically.
The first feels kind of like it's talking down to me. Like i could understand you might say that to me if i didn't understand the second one, but not before then.
yeah, i agree; the first one feels very emphatic. though that's partly because we default to reading tone linearly. so it depends on the purpose of the writing, as well as the layout context. if the rest of the writing is clearly intended for graphical scanning, it might be appropriate.
i expect anything that's unpopular to be given a fair shake
unless (and in most cases, until) it can be shown that a given opinion would lead to an unjust or otherwise unfavorable situation, then it should be given due respect
that's why i prefer to let people speak their mind first so i can query whether what they say has any merit, no matter what they have to say and if what they say is complete bullshit then we can take it apart afterwards
at least, this is in an ideal world, where everyone listens to reason and is honorable about their argumentation and everyone has all the time in the world to listen to everyone else
but still we should try, make an effort to bring things closer to this ideal by being open-minded and willing to listen to other people
[other blanket statement about why [thing] is of poor quality, with no details]
IF YOU CAN"T NAME WHY YOU THINK IT'S BAD SPECIFICALLY THEN EITHER ACKNOWLEDGE THAT OR SHUT THE FUCK UP
OTHERWISE, TELL ME WHY YOU HATE IT (SPECIFICS PLZ)
We're not getting anywhere as long as we simply treat everything as opinions opinions opinions, and treat opinions as black boxes that no one is willing to open and understand.
actual text from a published peer-reviewed paper (Whittle M, Quegan S, Uryu Y, Stüewe M. Yulianto K (2012) "Detection of tropical deforestation using ALOS-PALSAR": a Sumatran case study", Remote Sensing of Environment 124:83-98):
"Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), operating at microwave frequencies, offers the advantage of images unaffected by and allows regular long-term monitoring".
Hawks - Motel Texas The Twilight Sparkle Joshuas Group - El Diablo Paid a Visit to Tennessee Oceania - The Penultimate Wait Rocky Luther - Sufferin' une vie ascétique Greg's Gregariotes - I Ain't Edward VI, Am I? Gerry Connolly - Girls Fall Upon Me Like Snow Coffer - The Desert At Night Materialization - Your Mortal The Cencer - Truly Joyful Sonata Major AFB - Forget the Number Hotpause - Watches Smut Murals - j'agis Stodgy Prep - Softer, Worser, Slower, Weaker Backwatera - Only Sometimes When We Miss Chlorofluoro-carbons - Deasupra Măr Lethe - Ms. Humana
(reposting for posterity, and if anyone can't figure these out feel free to guess them here)
I think there are more games I want on the NES than on the SMS, and more on the SNES than on the Genesis/SMD, and more on the GB/GBC than on the GG. This is, for better or worse (probably worse), because I don't know what games are on the SMS/SMD/GG. For example, I just discovered Ranger-X.
games I want, on the PS1 (including games I have) Mega Man X4, X5 Mega Man 8 Mega Man Legends 1, 2 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Final Fantasy Tactics Einhänder (maybe?) Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX (kinda) some random JRPG, maybe Threads of Fate?
games I want, on the N64 Star Fox 64 Super Mario 64 Donkey Kong 64 Mario Kart 64 Zelda Ocarina of Time Castlevania 64, LoD (kinda)
games I want, Sega Saturn Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (DX:NitM edition) Magic Knight Rayearth (maybe?) some random shmups?
games I want, on GameCube Metroid Prime 1, 2 Mega Man Network Transmission Super Smash Bros. Melee Zelda Twilight Princess (left-handed version) maybe the Fire Emblem game
games I want, on PS2 Wild ARMs 4 ICO maybe some other random shmup or JRPG?
games I want, on Dreamcast Skies of Arcadia (heard of it rec'd to me)
games I want, on XBox ø
games I want, on Wii Metroid Prime 3 Endless Ocean maybe the Fire Emblem game Wii Sports? lololololol (actually a good game)
games I want, on PS3 Valkyria Chronicles maybe Resonance of Fate maybe some other random JRPG?
games I want, on XBox 360 ...uh...maybe Oblivion? but i already have that via Steam so i guess let's just go with a big fat ø
games I want, on WiiU ø
games I want, on PS4 ø well, actually, maybe FF15.
the most curious thing about ratfucking in political campaigns is that it's generally a (more or less) honest statement of opinion
it's not candid, but it's honest -- it's telling the truth about what the group producing the ad (be it a candidate or outside group) thinks about the target of the advertising, in most cases
(fyi, "candid" would be "i don't like you for these reasons, but i'm actually running ads against you for those other reasons, those other reasons being I want to fuck up your campaign so your idiot primary opponent gets elected")
the fact that it's called "ratfucking" is only the second most curious thing about this practice
1. I find myself often enjoying familiar fundamentals used to explore unfamiliar subjects.
For example, in music, I prefer to use my (mainly classical) understanding of tonality, harmony, and form to interpret, assimilate, build upon, and develop ideas from other styles of music, but I'm not particularly interested in, say, alternate tuning methods (and I mean no offense to anyone who is).
In videogames, I continue to seek out games like platformers where I know the basic controls almost like they're second nature, rather than games that have a large number of novel basic features that have to be learned in order to get anywhere. I'm not hugely excited when a game boasts its unique gameplay features. In contrast, for example, I actually want to see more Mega Man 8-bit games for years to come -- instead of new basics, I want to see those "known" basics become essentially a medium or a language through which a large number of adventures and experiences can be expressed.
What, if anything, might this mean?
2. Come to realize it, the real value of my high school literature classes (called English classes for me, as is likely for those of us from the United States) was to -- even if forcibly -- put us into the shoes of other people, in the form of characters in stories. What would this character think? How would this character act? Why did that character do what he/she did? How would I interact with that setting?
And using these tools to explore settings and cultures, and the meanings that cut across them. So in a sense, it was, simultaneously, seeing what was different and what was the same.
It didn't feel like it back then. It felt like lots of awkward scenarios, where we had to come up with cheesy dialogue for a modernized version of a Shakespeare play, or pretend to be an African woman writing poetry with only a novel and a little internet research to go by (and keep in mind this is back in the day when Google was still not as good of a search engine as AOL Search). Maybe I was busy figuring out the boundaries of where I could (or more likely couldn't) make surreptitious references to cartoons and videogames at the time. But the fact that we were forced to do all these silly things got us started on the experience of thinking in other people's shoes.
ideally, RPGs would not use cutscenes, but would express everything in the display mechanics of the rest of the game -- sprites, rendered polygons, or whatever.
at least, reserve cutscenes for those really, really rare and dramatic moments that are really, really special.
the reason is because, every time you change the display medium, that is a reminder to all of us to stop being immersed and remember that this is just a game.
the best RPGs of the "golden age" had no specially-animated cutscenes. FFIV, FFV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Terranigma...
well, the couldn't, but that's beside the point. what did FFVII do with its cutscenes? It made the game feel like shuttling characters between pieces of a movie. it was like watching a movie but having to advance the story by going between places and battling things. it divorced gameplay from story.
contrast with, say, FFVI -- where the "cutscenes" can play out almost anywhere -- in a town, in a dungeon, even in the middle of a battle screen. have Terra use magic that battle with Locke and Edgar and suddenly the battle...music keeps going while the action stops and Locke and Edgar go nuts over it.
it does not beat you over the head with "HEY, IT'S A BIG DRAMATIC THING HAPPENING, BRACE YOURSELVES." instead, it just makes you think it's a standard boss battle and then suddenly it's more than just that.
The best game design does not run away from its interface.
The best game design embraces and fully uses its interface.
This means using an interface that people are familiar with to introduce novel thoughts, ideas, plotlines, and more.
less than $5: a great deal! $5: a good deal $6: an okay deal $7: an meh deal $8 to $9: an acceptable deal $10: starting to be pricey $10 to $15: pricey $15 to $20: i really don't want to have to buy this, but under very limited circumstances, i may above $20: i'm leaving; let's go somewhere else
because, let's be honest, when i get a meal, i expect my stomach to be filled, very preferably with nutritious food.
my desire for a comfortable eating environs is satiated quite quickly. i am perfectly fine in a denny's or friendly's. when you start dimming the lights, i actually get pissed off. damnit, p f chiang's china bistro, turn the lights on already. (well, p f chiang's china bistro's food also kinda sucks too, anyway.)
personally, one of my favorite restaurants is sweet tomatoes and souplantation. for about $10 a person, i can get a buffet -- and one consisting almost entirely of salads and soups. i'm not exclusively a vegetarian, but i like eating vegetables and making sure i get a proper amount in my diet...or more. more never hurts.
i'm also a fan of those little restaurants that look a little dingy but once you settle in really feel like cozy little family-run joints where you can get good food in reasonable (or even generous) portions, for decent prices.
(this was composed in reply to someone on Steam saying that thinking to use ZXCV as face buttons for an action RPG was unintuitive)
From my own experience -- which is probably very atypical for a current PC gamer -- arrow keys + ZXCV seems to be a common control scheme.
I started off playing DOS games. The ones that were platformers tended to use the arrow keys for movement, Ctrl for jump, and Alt for attack (or some other function. If you used the left Ctrl and Alt, you can see how the scheme is pretty similar. This was used in such games as Duke Nukem (the very first three episodes), Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, Commander Keen, Secret Agent Man, Dark Ages,...
It wasn't used for a number of other games, though -- point-and-click adventures naturally used the mouse, as did various implementations of table games (such as card games and board games), or edutainment games that involved clicking on the right answer, or even typing it out. At least one game -- Tank Wars -- used the arrow keys plus Space and Tab. Meanwhile, on consoles and handhelds, control schemes generally involved a d-pad plus two to six buttons (depending on your system).
Fast-forward several years, I discovered console emulation. Since everything was integrated with Windows, and the Ctrl and Alt keys were often unwieldy to use, I naturally moved right over to the Z and X keys, for two-button controls. I did this without any prior knowledge that other people did or would do this. Later, though, I discovered that other people did indeed "colonize" the ZXCASD keys when emulating.
I guess it just came naturally for some reason? I have no idea why, but I think it's because: 1. it uses the arrow keys, which are assigned to the right hand only by keyboard design convention, but which seem to be the most natural choice when it comes to replacing the d-pad. 2. it spaces the two hands with comfortably on the keyboard -- I know I once considered using arrow keys + numpad or arrow keys + <>?:, but that would have been less comfortable. (For what it's worth, for some time I used QWEASD + UIOJ(K)LM<> for SNES controls, with the left hand being the "face buttons" and shoulder buttons and the right-hand being 8-directional buttons for FFVI's Blitz inputs.) 3. Because the right hand is using the arrow keys, the left hand has to deal with the face buttons. This is where people differ a little bit -- some people basically just transpose the face buttons to the left hand, so that (for example) the Jump button is still to the right of the Attack button, while others (such as myself) "mirror-imaged" the buttons, so that Jump is on the left of Attack. (This is why I refer to "outer" and "inner" buttons.)
Some people have used the numpad instead of arrow keys. It has the advantage that 7931 can be used for diagonals, though it also has the disadvantage that 5 becomes a dumb key if you make 2 your down key, and if you're not careful, you might hit 5 a lot. Also, many laptop models don't have numpads, or have a distorted numpad as an extra function on a set of keys, making this much less transferrable between computers. (Arrow keys, on the other hand, are very standard.)
(Ironically, I actually originally used Right Ctrl and Right Alt, rather than Left Ctrl and Left Alt. Kinda admired my friend who was able to do the latter. But I guess the unusuability of Winkey and context menu key, as well as my normal hand positioning for typing, got me to using the ZXCASD keys.)
So when I ran back into platformers and JRPGs that were native to PC -- in the form of freeware, flash, indie, doujin, retro, etc. games, starting in about 2005 or so (Cave Story) and onward, it made complete sense for me to just keep using this control scheme. And lo and behold -- it turned out to be quite common.
Funny thing is, I never played FPSes on PC until 2011. So I never got exposed to the WASD control scheme until much, much later. Took me some time to learn how to platform using WASD (including same-hand jumping) in Terraria.
I think the reason that this control scheme is common in Japanese games is partly because those genres that this control scheme is useful for -- namely, things like platformers, Zelda-likes, and JRPGs -- remained popular in Japan, even amongst the PC gaming and indie game development folks, and thus, people there -- not unlike myself -- just came up with the same control scheme. (If I recall correctly, FPS games are much less popular in Japan than in North America.)
Idea for actually productive copyright policy for TV shows:
Allow only some episodes to be posted. These are the ones that don't contain the major plot spoilers for the show. Let people post the first several episodes of that 13-episode series freely. Just don't let people post, say, episodes 10-13.
This way, people will get to see some of it, but will really want to watch the rest of it...which is what a buy link is for. You also get exposure to people wherein you might convince them to actually pay to watch the rest of the series. The people who weren't gonna buy won't buy anyway, but you can always bring new people on board. (Just like many such strategies, though, this is far more effective if you haven't saturated the market with awareness yet. If you already have, then this is pointless. Alternatively, don't bother investing so heavily in advertising.)
Doesn't have to be the same batch of eps for every series. For example, if your plot arcs are five episodes each and you have a 65-episode series, you could allow the first four episodes of each plot arc to be shown.
It seems like one problem with show biz is...well, it's biz.
Specifically, the "business" side of things tries to figure out ways to ensure that something is a hit. One way of doing that is by advertising a bunch.
Such events are naturally random, but the business side would like nothing more than to reduce that randomness to a set of manageable factors.
And on top of that, they fiddle with the internal structure of the show to try and make it more appealing to the biz, causing anything from plot holes to subpar writing to a host of other problems.
Idea for a story, which came to me in a dream while I was taking a nap:
a master mage is about to give her apprentice 'eir first magical focus device.
(the master mage resembles scherezard from Trails in the Sky) (one of the magical focus devices is a small orb, not unlike the magical devices in Nanoha...pretty sure that's why I keep on wanting to call them "devices". the other one, however, is in the form of a ring.) (the apprentice's gender was not specified in my dream)
the mage is carrying two such devices out of her shop room in the back -- one basic one, which will be given to the apprentice and contains capability for some low-level spells, and one very powerful one, a device that the mage has had for years, and which she will be using to demonstrate a device's capabilities.
the apprentice is curiously trying on
but suddenly, the villain teleports in and grabs the mage; the villain apparently wants the mage, specifically, for unknown reasons, but it seems the apprentice was not part of her plans. the apprentice, knowing that the ring is the more powerful of the two devices, manages to slip it on, but the villain notices it and allegedly casts a spell that makes the apprentice unable to use the ring. then the villain teleports out with the mage.
(the villain is apparently female as well, though I'm not too sure.)
so now the apprentice is stuck with a basic magical device that 'ey can probably figure out how to use with a little time, and a legendarily-powerful magical device that 'ey don't know how to use and are probably (it was not clarified in my dream) incapable of using.
then (presumably this is a videogame), you take control of said apprentice.
"After a slow start, the number of financing agreements with water users rose sharply, helped by the development of a streamlined process based on environmental services certificates (Certificados de Servicios Ambientales, CSA) which are standardized instruments that pay for the conservation of one hectare of forest."
why anime fans seem to overwhelmingly prefer subs (at least, the vocal ones) over (American English) dubs
potential hypotheses: * they have watched more anime than i have, and a lot of dubs out there are that bad. ** sub-hypothesis: they may specifically have watched more poor dubs from the 80s/90s than i have * i have comparatively lower standards for voiceover quality. ** sub-hypothesis: a lot of them don't know japanese and can't tell when it sucks but do know english and thus can tell when that sucks * they think of anime as an inherently "japanese" thing (which i don't), which means that by default it just is more appropriate to have it voiced in japanese. ** sub-hypothesis: they watch more anime that's set in japan. i did some pondering and it does seem that i tend to be less interested in series that are set in japan (e.g. slice of life school comedy/romance series). * (applies mainly to those people whose native language is not American English) other people are more used to subs, or don't really like American English very much * maybe it's just me that finds audio spoken in my own language more immersive, on par?
corollary that i also don't understand:
why anime fans seem to overwhelmingly prefer subs yet dubs still get made, and in increasing amounts
i mean, i like dubs, but i can't be the cause of it...i've only recently bought three box sets for relatively short series that came out many, many years before i bought them...
i know i can sweep things under the banner of "matters of taste"
but that won't help understanding
i wanna find out how things work in the mechanisms of the mind how things turn out the way they do via the way things are framed, the prejudices we hold (positive and negative), our conscious and unconscious biases, our social context, etc.
like this hypothesis: that i have a lot more taste for V-to-I progressions because my upbringing contained a more classical music and videogame music and less american pop than that of a lot of my peers
on that subject, i've even less figured out why harmony seems to resonate with me so much
another weird idea for a story/setting detail, which also came in a dream:
there was this old lady, probably in her 60s (though she looked older than that). she ran this weird shop, some random hole-in-the-wall shop in a strip mall. it didn't appear to sell anything -- the place instead looked like a warehouse, with large numbers of boxes shrink-wrapped and piled onto huge shelves.
she explained that she would have retired, but she still has to support _her_ mother (who is presumably in her 80s or 90s or something. and she also commented that of all her children, she most appreciates her daughter, despite her daughter's work as a prostitute, because her daughter stuck with her and continues to care for her while her sons have basically all cut her off.
(I was watching Law & Order earlier last evening, it might explain some of this premise)
after thinking about this story premise, I realized that one thing I enjoy about stories is ones that go beyond stereotypes and assumptions about people and really humanize them.
Unused e-mail troll response: "I have "soul of Tim [last name]" that I will give away for free. Must pick this up in person; background check required to make sure you're not a demon."
the original tower of druaga is not divided into segments. only 60 floors. I think. I haven't actually played it myself. I've seen a playthrough though...
segments of the new tower of druaga:
1. Tin Shrine (brown/yellow caves and rock bridges, contains the Camel Garden) 2. Lead Shrine (blue caves?) 3. Iron Shrine (location of Ziusudra's Trap?) 4. Bronze Shrine (I think this is the mountainous location, site of town Arghya, with the "lightning bridge" - the Dingir Ropeway) 5. Silver Shrine (more caverns and rock bridges, and the site of fuzzballs and Slumber Mushrooms, and the one-winger dragon?) 6. Gold Shrine (habitat of mimics, location of the inverted abandoned town of Baragesi?) (location of the original 60-floor dungeon?) 7. Diamond Shrine (permanent raging snowstorm, contains the Lion Garden, the third stratum (level?) of which is Ahmey's previous experience) 8. Sky Shrine (top level, crystalline structure containing Druaga) There is also a Scorpion Garden somewhere. Each Shrine is subdivided into several Gardens.
segments of the tower of fantasy:
1. rocky desert of shadows 2. forest 3. house of the dead 4. water realm 5. dark land ?. crevice between fantasies? 6. land of fire? (shown only briefly) 7. land of ice? (shown only briefly) 8. land of sunset? (shown only briefly) 9. the palace
It's kind of amazing that this show has existed for at least five years but no one seems to have yet put together a fan compilation of this information. Unfortunately, it seems that these two towers are solely a product of the anime series for now. But they seem to have thought this through very thoroughly.
...if only they made a videogame with these towers. I would so play it; oh, my, gosh. Me want.
Kickstarter projects I have backed, in order from lowest to highest risk: (risk = chance that the project might not end up being what I want it to be)
(lowest risk) * Ryuutama translation (existing game system, translation means project has explicitly limited scope.) * Mighty No. 9 (my success criterion is that this be on par with the later NES Mega Man games, because that's what it's essentially shaping up to be -- another Mega Man game. Such a game has a known formula that Inafking has been well-experienced in. If it goes above and beyond that, all the better. It could also try something different and flop, but given fan demands on it, that is less than likely.) * Dysfunctional Systems episodes 2 & 3 (While the original artist has left, it is the writing and story presentation that really made the first episode shine, and they're still around. They could introduce mechanics that make the game less fun, but it's not like the original was much of a game anyway, being a visual novel. My success criterion is that it be as dramatically interesting as the first -- which is not a high bar.) * La-Mulana 2 (A complexly-interlinked puzzle-based metroidvania game is more complex than a visual novel, even for the same quality of script. La-Mulana 1 managed to synergize gameplay mechanics with narrative experience, and my success criterion for LM2 is something very similar.) * Legend of Iya (a metroidvania game that's been in development on and off for at least 5 years at the time the kickstarter was made. promising early footage, but at the time, I knew of no other game dev projects from the dev. all I knew was that he could make it look really good, as a professional sprite artist.) * Under the Dog (my first non-game project backing, and also an animation project. The only certain things were who was working on the project -- the plot is one presumably involving politics and intrigue that may turn out poorly, for example. I'm not even sure what exactly is my success criterion, though at the very least it has to be meaningfully entertaining.) * Midora (I knew almost nothing about this project, other than that it took inspiration from the Zelda games, looked pretty creative and interesting, and had good quality art and decent music, which I felt was worth backing since I want to see the continued development of good-quality 2D sprite games.) (highest risk)
How to see clearly that humans are not entirely rational creatures:
let: statement_1 = a statement presented with a boatload of evidence and argument supporting/explaining it. statement_2 = a statement presented with absolutely no support, but simply presented as is.
scenario: a normal conversation.
complete rationality: (incidentally, what we are taught to do, using critical thinking)
strength(statement_1) >> strength(statement_2)
what actually happens:
strength(statement_1) << strength(statement_2)
This is because the ability to say something and nonchalantly, undefensively, get away with it as if it were totally okay is perceived, apparently automatically, as a huge amount of strength. The easiest way that would happen is if that something were true -- which thus becomes the default assumption.
So I've been thinking about Homura, and how her power of Time Stands Still reflects her inability to move forward. Look at the series: She spends the whole time doing the same thing over and over again: TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLDTRYING TO SAVE MADOKA. It's the same story; Mami will freak out, so don't tell her anything. Sayaka is an idiot, so who cares about her. Kyouko is the only one she bothers to try to talk with, so get her on your side. And she keeps dropping the ball. Because she doesn't know how to do things differently. Madoka keeps dying, everybody keeps dying, and Homura just does it all over again. She fell into a rut, and never seemed to figure out how to avoid many of the problems that led to failure. It finally ends when the very person she was trying to save Flips the whole fucking script on everyone and goes full goddess. Now we come to Rebellion and everything has changed. Once her memories start awakening, Homura goes in to full Homu-Homu the Avenger mode.....and accomplishes nothing, cause she's trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. She's acting based off vague memories of how things used to be, and she did a bad job when she did know what's going on. All she manages to accomplish is filling Kyouko in on what is going on, but doesn't ask for more help. Mami can't handle the truth so don't tell her nothing; as a result, they end up in a huge fight that Mami wins because she was twenty steps ahead already. Then Bebe / Nagisa just fills her in anyway, making Homura's worries irrelevant. Sayaka is an idiot so who cares about.....'''Did she just block my fucking time stop?!Did she just retreat when she realized she couldn't win?! An actual strategy? And wait....is she still a fucking witch?! So yeah. This time, Sayaka is the one who knows the score, and despite being limited by Kyubey's watchful eyes, does a better job of explaining things than Homura ever did. Unfortunately, Homura is as good as listening to Sayaka as Sayaka was to her (I can almost picture the latter going So that's whatfeels like) so it does nothing, but still. The game has changed, but Homura hasn't caught on yet Eventually she sees the truth. She's not the one saving everyone (and thank god for that cause, awesome as she is, she really sucks at it). This time, she's the problem. And in the end, everyone has to save her, even though she thinks they should let her go. In the end, the world moved forward, while Homura, just like her wish created power, kept either standing still, or repeating the same old shit. How's that sound to you guys?
That's an interesting look indeed and I have something else to add, if you don't mind. If you consider Oriko to be canon, then that was the one time things were different. Mami didn't witch out after hearing the truth and Kyouko and Sayaka(since she didn't contract) didn't die, meaning that there would have been four magical girls(Mami, Homura, Kyouko, Yuma) facing Walpurgisnacht instead of Homura alone. Most importantly, Madoka was not killed nor did she contract. A win-win for Homura, right? Wrong! This timeline was only different mainly, I think, because of Yuma's and Oriko's presence and actions, not Homura's actions. And as if to mock her for thinking that this might be the timeline she was looking for, Madoka ends up dying anyway, making this attempt yet another failure. Crestfallen and defeated, Homura went back to the usual routine of trying different scenarios with the same outcome until Madoka's wish uprooted the Witch system, which was soon followed by Homura doing the same to Madoka's, becoming the Queen of the Night, biding her time on her throne waiting for the day her former comrades come to put an end to her self-inflicted misery.
Apparently there's a lot of subtext in the Madoka Magica metaseries (i.e. including the supplementary materials) implying that Homura is wrong to fight destiny. There seems to be setting details basically actively trying to screw her over. Kyubey having access to multiple bodies, Walpurgis Nacht always being too powerful (and even being a thing in the first place).
It's almost like saying "stop trying". Well, you know what, fuck destiny. Perhaps Homura needs dimensional magic to get out of her series and hold Gen Urobuchi at gunpoint.
List of characters unfairly screwed over by destiny: * Asuka * Homura
In a way it's almost like the opposite of Kiddy Grade. In Kiddy Grade, part of the message is to retain hope even in despair. In Madoka Magica, part of the message seems to be to resign oneself to despair even when one has the power to hope.
I mean, if the message is to deny the whole point of hope, then honestly, what do we live for and what do we fight for anyway?
I say that just means we take a few steps back and fight that idea itself.
They never really say what Walpurgis Nacht even _is_, other than a super-powerful witch.
Well I think WN is basically symbolic. Which is what gives it the power to basically skirt rules of setting mechanics, which is what Homura is going by.
Incidentally, I ran across a version of "Surgam identidem" (WN's battle theme) that was basically an emulated/MIDI soundset version of it. At first, I felt the sound quality was poor. Then I realized, it was appropriate. It's a construct. It's a construct made specifically to screw the main characters over. It's not actually a "real" thing; any impacts it has in in-universe reality are basically just rules-ignoring on the part of destiny (which could be interpreted as the story direction/writers, but exactly who this is is irrelevant as this is mostly a conceptual consideration).
Comments
The first feels kind of like it's talking down to me. Like i could understand you might say that to me if i didn't understand the second one, but not before then.
so what if stuff is unpopular
i expect anything that's unpopular to be given a fair shake
unless (and in most cases, until) it can be shown that a given opinion would lead to an unjust or otherwise unfavorable situation, then it should be given due respect
that's why i prefer to let people speak their mind first so i can query whether what they say has any merit, no matter what they have to say
and if what they say is complete bullshit then we can take it apart afterwards
at least, this is in an ideal world, where everyone listens to reason and is honorable about their argumentation and everyone has all the time in the world to listen to everyone else
but still we should try, make an effort to bring things closer to this ideal
by being open-minded and willing to listen to other people
SPECIFICALLY
THEN EITHER ACKNOWLEDGE THAT
OR SHUT THE FUCK UP
OTHERWISE, TELL ME WHY YOU HATE IT
(SPECIFICS PLZ)
We're not getting anywhere as long as we simply treat everything as opinions opinions opinions, and treat opinions as black boxes that no one is willing to open and understand.
"Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), operating at microwave frequencies, offers the advantage of images unaffected by and allows regular long-term monitoring".
[sic]
I think they mean "unaffected by clouds".
The Twilight Sparkle Joshuas Group - El Diablo Paid a Visit to Tennessee
Oceania - The Penultimate Wait
Rocky Luther - Sufferin' une vie ascétique
Greg's Gregariotes - I Ain't Edward VI, Am I?
Gerry Connolly - Girls Fall Upon Me Like Snow
Coffer - The Desert At Night
Materialization - Your Mortal
The Cencer - Truly Joyful Sonata
Major AFB - Forget the Number
Hotpause - Watches
Smut Murals - j'agis
Stodgy Prep - Softer, Worser, Slower, Weaker
Backwatera - Only Sometimes When We Miss
Chlorofluoro-carbons - Deasupra Măr
Lethe - Ms. Humana
(reposting for posterity, and if anyone can't figure these out feel free to guess them here)
I think there are more games I want on the NES than on the SMS, and more on the SNES than on the Genesis/SMD, and more on the GB/GBC than on the GG. This is, for better or worse (probably worse), because I don't know what games are on the SMS/SMD/GG. For example, I just discovered Ranger-X.
games I want, on the PS1 (including games I have)
Mega Man X4, X5
Mega Man 8
Mega Man Legends 1, 2
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Final Fantasy Tactics
Einhänder (maybe?)
Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX (kinda)
some random JRPG, maybe Threads of Fate?
games I want, on the N64
Star Fox 64
Super Mario 64
Donkey Kong 64
Mario Kart 64
Zelda Ocarina of Time
Castlevania 64, LoD (kinda)
games I want, Sega Saturn
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (DX:NitM edition)
Magic Knight Rayearth (maybe?)
some random shmups?
games I want, on GameCube
Metroid Prime 1, 2
Mega Man Network Transmission
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Zelda Twilight Princess (left-handed version)
maybe the Fire Emblem game
games I want, on PS2
Wild ARMs 4
ICO
maybe some other random shmup or JRPG?
games I want, on Dreamcast
Skies of Arcadia (heard of it rec'd to me)
games I want, on XBox
ø
games I want, on Wii
Metroid Prime 3
Endless Ocean
maybe the Fire Emblem game
Wii Sports? lololololol (actually a good game)
games I want, on PS3
Valkyria Chronicles
maybe Resonance of Fate
maybe some other random JRPG?
games I want, on XBox 360
...uh...maybe Oblivion? but i already have that via Steam so i guess let's just go with a big fat ø
games I want, on WiiU
ø
games I want, on PS4
ø
well, actually, maybe FF15.
games I want, on Xbone
ø
i think it's Terra Diver
that and radiant silvergun, dunno what system they're for
too lazy to look them up; i'll just wait for miko to wander into here and post the answers
it's not candid, but it's honest -- it's telling the truth about what the group producing the ad (be it a candidate or outside group) thinks about the target of the advertising, in most cases
(fyi, "candid" would be "i don't like you for these reasons, but i'm actually running ads against you for those other reasons, those other reasons being I want to fuck up your campaign so your idiot primary opponent gets elected")
the fact that it's called "ratfucking" is only the second most curious thing about this practice
heh.
I find myself often enjoying familiar fundamentals used to explore unfamiliar subjects.
For example, in music, I prefer to use my (mainly classical) understanding of tonality, harmony, and form to interpret, assimilate, build upon, and develop ideas from other styles of music, but I'm not particularly interested in, say, alternate tuning methods (and I mean no offense to anyone who is).
In videogames, I continue to seek out games like platformers where I know the basic controls almost like they're second nature, rather than games that have a large number of novel basic features that have to be learned in order to get anywhere. I'm not hugely excited when a game boasts its unique gameplay features. In contrast, for example, I actually want to see more Mega Man 8-bit games for years to come -- instead of new basics, I want to see those "known" basics become essentially a medium or a language through which a large number of adventures and experiences can be expressed.
What, if anything, might this mean?
2.
Come to realize it, the real value of my high school literature classes (called English classes for me, as is likely for those of us from the United States) was to -- even if forcibly -- put us into the shoes of other people, in the form of characters in stories. What would this character think? How would this character act? Why did that character do what he/she did? How would I interact with that setting?
And using these tools to explore settings and cultures, and the meanings that cut across them. So in a sense, it was, simultaneously, seeing what was different and what was the same.
It didn't feel like it back then. It felt like lots of awkward scenarios, where we had to come up with cheesy dialogue for a modernized version of a Shakespeare play, or pretend to be an African woman writing poetry with only a novel and a little internet research to go by (and keep in mind this is back in the day when Google was still not as good of a search engine as AOL Search). Maybe I was busy figuring out the boundaries of where I could (or more likely couldn't) make surreptitious references to cartoons and videogames at the time. But the fact that we were forced to do all these silly things got us started on the experience of thinking in other people's shoes.
ideally, RPGs would not use cutscenes, but would express everything in the display mechanics of the rest of the game -- sprites, rendered polygons, or whatever.
at least, reserve cutscenes for those really, really rare and dramatic moments that are really, really special.
the reason is because, every time you change the display medium, that is a reminder to all of us to stop being immersed and remember that this is just a game.
the best RPGs of the "golden age" had no specially-animated cutscenes. FFIV, FFV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Terranigma...
well, the couldn't, but that's beside the point. what did FFVII do with its cutscenes? It made the game feel like shuttling characters between pieces of a movie. it was like watching a movie but having to advance the story by going between places and battling things. it divorced gameplay from story.
contrast with, say, FFVI -- where the "cutscenes" can play out almost anywhere -- in a town, in a dungeon, even in the middle of a battle screen. have Terra use magic that battle with Locke and Edgar and suddenly the battle...music keeps going while the action stops and Locke and Edgar go nuts over it.
it does not beat you over the head with "HEY, IT'S A BIG DRAMATIC THING HAPPENING, BRACE YOURSELVES."
instead, it just makes you think it's a standard boss battle and then suddenly it's more than just that.
The best game design does not run away from its interface.
The best game design embraces and fully uses its interface.
This means using an interface that people are familiar with to introduce novel thoughts, ideas, plotlines, and more.
less than $5: a great deal!
$5: a good deal
$6: an okay deal
$7: an meh deal
$8 to $9: an acceptable deal
$10: starting to be pricey
$10 to $15: pricey
$15 to $20: i really don't want to have to buy this, but under very limited circumstances, i may
above $20: i'm leaving; let's go somewhere else
my desire for a comfortable eating environs is satiated quite quickly. i am perfectly fine in a denny's or friendly's.
when you start dimming the lights, i actually get pissed off. damnit, p f chiang's china bistro, turn the lights on already. (well, p f chiang's china bistro's food also kinda sucks too, anyway.)
personally, one of my favorite restaurants is sweet tomatoes and souplantation. for about $10 a person, i can get a buffet -- and one consisting almost entirely of salads and soups. i'm not exclusively a vegetarian, but i like eating vegetables and making sure i get a proper amount in my diet...or more. more never hurts.
i'm also a fan of those little restaurants that look a little dingy but once you settle in really feel like cozy little family-run joints where you can get good food in reasonable (or even generous) portions, for decent prices.
so i rarely eat seafood.
or japanese.
(unless you're doing buffet, japanese is horribly inefficient in food mass per unit price.)
i think i'm pickier about the cost of my food than i am about the food itself, lol.
i have been known to be perfectly okay with what my parents consider to be crappy chinese food.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Even if it instills the fear of the deep and unknown in you.
From my own experience -- which is probably very atypical for a current PC gamer -- arrow keys + ZXCV seems to be a common control scheme.
I started off playing DOS games. The ones that were platformers tended to use the arrow keys for movement, Ctrl for jump, and Alt for attack (or some other function. If you used the left Ctrl and Alt, you can see how the scheme is pretty similar. This was used in such games as Duke Nukem (the very first three episodes), Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, Commander Keen, Secret Agent Man, Dark Ages,...
It wasn't used for a number of other games, though -- point-and-click adventures naturally used the mouse, as did various implementations of table games (such as card games and board games), or edutainment games that involved clicking on the right answer, or even typing it out. At least one game -- Tank Wars -- used the arrow keys plus Space and Tab. Meanwhile, on consoles and handhelds, control schemes generally involved a d-pad plus two to six buttons (depending on your system).
Fast-forward several years, I discovered console emulation. Since everything was integrated with Windows, and the Ctrl and Alt keys were often unwieldy to use, I naturally moved right over to the Z and X keys, for two-button controls. I did this without any prior knowledge that other people did or would do this. Later, though, I discovered that other people did indeed "colonize" the ZXCASD keys when emulating.
I guess it just came naturally for some reason? I have no idea why, but I think it's because:
1. it uses the arrow keys, which are assigned to the right hand only by keyboard design convention, but which seem to be the most natural choice when it comes to replacing the d-pad.
2. it spaces the two hands with comfortably on the keyboard -- I know I once considered using arrow keys + numpad or arrow keys + <>?:, but that would have been less comfortable. (For what it's worth, for some time I used QWEASD + UIOJ(K)LM<> for SNES controls, with the left hand being the "face buttons" and shoulder buttons and the right-hand being 8-directional buttons for FFVI's Blitz inputs.)
3. Because the right hand is using the arrow keys, the left hand has to deal with the face buttons. This is where people differ a little bit -- some people basically just transpose the face buttons to the left hand, so that (for example) the Jump button is still to the right of the Attack button, while others (such as myself) "mirror-imaged" the buttons, so that Jump is on the left of Attack. (This is why I refer to "outer" and "inner" buttons.)
Some people have used the numpad instead of arrow keys. It has the advantage that 7931 can be used for diagonals, though it also has the disadvantage that 5 becomes a dumb key if you make 2 your down key, and if you're not careful, you might hit 5 a lot. Also, many laptop models don't have numpads, or have a distorted numpad as an extra function on a set of keys, making this much less transferrable between computers. (Arrow keys, on the other hand, are very standard.)
(Ironically, I actually originally used Right Ctrl and Right Alt, rather than Left Ctrl and Left Alt. Kinda admired my friend who was able to do the latter. But I guess the unusuability of Winkey and context menu key, as well as my normal hand positioning for typing, got me to using the ZXCASD keys.)
So when I ran back into platformers and JRPGs that were native to PC -- in the form of freeware, flash, indie, doujin, retro, etc. games, starting in about 2005 or so (Cave Story) and onward, it made complete sense for me to just keep using this control scheme. And lo and behold -- it turned out to be quite common.
Funny thing is, I never played FPSes on PC until 2011. So I never got exposed to the WASD control scheme until much, much later. Took me some time to learn how to platform using WASD (including same-hand jumping) in Terraria.
I think the reason that this control scheme is common in Japanese games is partly because those genres that this control scheme is useful for -- namely, things like platformers, Zelda-likes, and JRPGs -- remained popular in Japan, even amongst the PC gaming and indie game development folks, and thus, people there -- not unlike myself -- just came up with the same control scheme. (If I recall correctly, FPS games are much less popular in Japan than in North America.)
Allow only some episodes to be posted. These are the ones that don't contain the major plot spoilers for the show. Let people post the first several episodes of that 13-episode series freely. Just don't let people post, say, episodes 10-13.
This way, people will get to see some of it, but will really want to watch the rest of it...which is what a buy link is for. You also get exposure to people wherein you might convince them to actually pay to watch the rest of the series. The people who weren't gonna buy won't buy anyway, but you can always bring new people on board. (Just like many such strategies, though, this is far more effective if you haven't saturated the market with awareness yet. If you already have, then this is pointless. Alternatively, don't bother investing so heavily in advertising.)
Doesn't have to be the same batch of eps for every series. For example, if your plot arcs are five episodes each and you have a 65-episode series, you could allow the first four episodes of each plot arc to be shown.
Specifically, the "business" side of things tries to figure out ways to ensure that something is a hit. One way of doing that is by advertising a bunch.
Such events are naturally random, but the business side would like nothing more than to reduce that randomness to a set of manageable factors.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
a master mage is about to give her apprentice 'eir first magical focus device.
(the master mage resembles scherezard from Trails in the Sky)
(one of the magical focus devices is a small orb, not unlike the magical devices in Nanoha...pretty sure that's why I keep on wanting to call them "devices". the other one, however, is in the form of a ring.)
(the apprentice's gender was not specified in my dream)
the mage is carrying two such devices out of her shop room in the back -- one basic one, which will be given to the apprentice and contains capability for some low-level spells, and one very powerful one, a device that the mage has had for years, and which she will be using to demonstrate a device's capabilities.
the apprentice is curiously trying on
but suddenly, the villain teleports in and grabs the mage; the villain apparently wants the mage, specifically, for unknown reasons, but it seems the apprentice was not part of her plans. the apprentice, knowing that the ring is the more powerful of the two devices, manages to slip it on, but the villain notices it and allegedly casts a spell that makes the apprentice unable to use the ring. then the villain teleports out with the mage.
(the villain is apparently female as well, though I'm not too sure.)
so now the apprentice is stuck with a basic magical device that 'ey can probably figure out how to use with a little time, and a legendarily-powerful magical device that 'ey don't know how to use and are probably (it was not clarified in my dream) incapable of using.
then (presumably this is a videogame), you take control of said apprentice.
SNICKER
why anime fans seem to overwhelmingly prefer subs (at least, the vocal ones) over (American English) dubs
potential hypotheses:
* they have watched more anime than i have, and a lot of dubs out there are that bad.
** sub-hypothesis: they may specifically have watched more poor dubs from the 80s/90s than i have
* i have comparatively lower standards for voiceover quality.
** sub-hypothesis: a lot of them don't know japanese and can't tell when it sucks but do know english and thus can tell when that sucks
* they think of anime as an inherently "japanese" thing (which i don't), which means that by default it just is more appropriate to have it voiced in japanese.
** sub-hypothesis: they watch more anime that's set in japan. i did some pondering and it does seem that i tend to be less interested in series that are set in japan (e.g. slice of life school comedy/romance series).
* (applies mainly to those people whose native language is not American English) other people are more used to subs, or don't really like American English very much
* maybe it's just me that finds audio spoken in my own language more immersive, on par?
corollary that i also don't understand:
why anime fans seem to overwhelmingly prefer subs yet dubs still get made, and in increasing amounts
i mean, i like dubs, but i can't be the cause of it...i've only recently bought three box sets for relatively short series that came out many, many years before i bought them...
woo
reference pool?
cultural background?
genre preferences?
or what?
Why do some people prefer light text on dark background?
i know i can sweep things under the banner of "matters of taste"
but that won't help understanding
i wanna find out how things work in the mechanisms of the mind
how things turn out the way they do via the way things are framed, the prejudices we hold (positive and negative), our conscious and unconscious biases, our social context, etc.
that's what i want to find out
i always put on subs whenever possible, even when it's a live action film in english
on that subject, i've even less figured out why harmony seems to resonate with me so much
like, am i really all that different from others
or is it just my perception
there was this old lady, probably in her 60s (though she looked older than that). she ran this weird shop, some random hole-in-the-wall shop in a strip mall. it didn't appear to sell anything -- the place instead looked like a warehouse, with large numbers of boxes shrink-wrapped and piled onto huge shelves.
she explained that she would have retired, but she still has to support _her_ mother (who is presumably in her 80s or 90s or something. and she also commented that of all her children, she most appreciates her daughter, despite her daughter's work as a prostitute, because her daughter stuck with her and continues to care for her while her sons have basically all cut her off.
(I was watching Law & Order earlier last evening, it might explain some of this premise)
after thinking about this story premise, I realized that one thing I enjoy about stories is ones that go beyond stereotypes and assumptions about people and really humanize them.
We just don't know how to deal with it when we're faced with it. And we know that others will feel the same way.
But when someone else is doing it and another someone else has to deal with it, we're perfectly fine with getting popcorn.
This is the basis of a good amount of comedy.
segments of the new tower of druaga:
1. Tin Shrine (brown/yellow caves and rock bridges, contains the Camel Garden)
2. Lead Shrine (blue caves?)
3. Iron Shrine (location of Ziusudra's Trap?)
4. Bronze Shrine (I think this is the mountainous location, site of town Arghya, with the "lightning bridge" - the Dingir Ropeway)
5. Silver Shrine (more caverns and rock bridges, and the site of fuzzballs and Slumber Mushrooms, and the one-winger dragon?)
6. Gold Shrine (habitat of mimics, location of the inverted abandoned town of Baragesi?) (location of the original 60-floor dungeon?)
7. Diamond Shrine (permanent raging snowstorm, contains the Lion Garden, the third stratum (level?) of which is Ahmey's previous experience)
8. Sky Shrine (top level, crystalline structure containing Druaga)
There is also a Scorpion Garden somewhere. Each Shrine is subdivided into several Gardens.
segments of the tower of fantasy:
1. rocky desert of shadows
2. forest
3. house of the dead
4. water realm
5. dark land
?. crevice between fantasies?
6. land of fire? (shown only briefly)
7. land of ice? (shown only briefly)
8. land of sunset? (shown only briefly)
9. the palace
It's kind of amazing that this show has existed for at least five years but no one seems to have yet put together a fan compilation of this information. Unfortunately, it seems that these two towers are solely a product of the anime series for now. But they seem to have thought this through very thoroughly.
...if only they made a videogame with these towers. I would so play it; oh, my, gosh. Me want.
(risk = chance that the project might not end up being what I want it to be)
(lowest risk)
* Ryuutama translation (existing game system, translation means project has explicitly limited scope.)
* Mighty No. 9 (my success criterion is that this be on par with the later NES Mega Man games, because that's what it's essentially shaping up to be -- another Mega Man game. Such a game has a known formula that Inafking has been well-experienced in. If it goes above and beyond that, all the better. It could also try something different and flop, but given fan demands on it, that is less than likely.)
* Dysfunctional Systems episodes 2 & 3 (While the original artist has left, it is the writing and story presentation that really made the first episode shine, and they're still around. They could introduce mechanics that make the game less fun, but it's not like the original was much of a game anyway, being a visual novel. My success criterion is that it be as dramatically interesting as the first -- which is not a high bar.)
* La-Mulana 2 (A complexly-interlinked puzzle-based metroidvania game is more complex than a visual novel, even for the same quality of script. La-Mulana 1 managed to synergize gameplay mechanics with narrative experience, and my success criterion for LM2 is something very similar.)
* Legend of Iya (a metroidvania game that's been in development on and off for at least 5 years at the time the kickstarter was made. promising early footage, but at the time, I knew of no other game dev projects from the dev. all I knew was that he could make it look really good, as a professional sprite artist.)
* Under the Dog (my first non-game project backing, and also an animation project. The only certain things were who was working on the project -- the plot is one presumably involving politics and intrigue that may turn out poorly, for example. I'm not even sure what exactly is my success criterion, though at the very least it has to be meaningfully entertaining.)
* Midora (I knew almost nothing about this project, other than that
it took inspiration from the Zelda games, looked pretty creative and
interesting, and had good quality art and decent music, which I felt was worth backing since I want to see the continued development of good-quality 2D sprite games.)
(highest risk)
let:
statement_1 = a statement presented with a boatload of evidence and argument supporting/explaining it.
statement_2 = a statement presented with absolutely no support, but simply presented as is.
scenario: a normal conversation.
complete rationality: (incidentally, what we are taught to do, using critical thinking)
strength(statement_1) >> strength(statement_2)
what actually happens:
strength(statement_1) << strength(statement_2)
This is because the ability to say something and nonchalantly, undefensively, get away with it as if it were totally okay is perceived, apparently automatically, as a huge amount of strength. The easiest way that would happen is if that something were true -- which thus becomes the default assumption.
even the cynic can hope (K.S.)
(source: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=12943821940A52797100&page=2070#51748 ) (source: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=12943821940A52797100&page=2071#51772 )
Apparently there's a lot of subtext in the Madoka Magica metaseries (i.e. including the supplementary materials) implying that Homura is wrong to fight destiny. There seems to be setting details basically actively trying to screw her over. Kyubey having access to multiple bodies, Walpurgis Nacht always being too powerful (and even being a thing in the first place).
It's almost like saying "stop trying". Well, you know what, fuck destiny. Perhaps Homura needs dimensional magic to get out of her series and hold Gen Urobuchi at gunpoint.
List of characters unfairly screwed over by destiny:
* Asuka
* Homura
In a way it's almost like the opposite of Kiddy Grade.
In Kiddy Grade, part of the message is to retain hope even in despair.
In Madoka Magica, part of the message seems to be to resign oneself to despair even when one has the power to hope.
I mean, if the message is to deny the whole point of hope, then honestly, what do we live for and what do we fight for anyway?
I say that just means we take a few steps back and fight that idea itself.
Well I think WN is basically symbolic. Which is what gives it the power to basically skirt rules of setting mechanics, which is what Homura is going by.
Incidentally, I ran across a version of "Surgam identidem" (WN's battle theme) that was basically an emulated/MIDI soundset version of it. At first, I felt the sound quality was poor. Then I realized, it was appropriate. It's a construct. It's a construct made specifically to screw the main characters over. It's not actually a "real" thing; any impacts it has in in-universe reality are basically just rules-ignoring on the part of destiny (which could be interpreted as the story direction/writers, but exactly who this is is irrelevant as this is mostly a conceptual consideration).