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Off Topic / Re: [blogland] trying to get out of this low state
« on: October 30, 2017, 09:10:46 PM »
You may want to consider seeing a doctor to get a blood test and verify you've not got any physical conditions affecting your mood.
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362
Off Topic / Re: Post Your Playlists!
« on: October 30, 2017, 09:00:30 PM »
Spotify: Just Tunes - 968 Songs, 64 Hours
It's full of the best of the best songs from my local music collection and anything I come across. I'm always adding new tracks on the fly. Just hit shuffle and see what kind of stuff you kind find. The goal would be to eventually branch this into sub-playlists with various themes, but this works as a starting point.
It's full of the best of the best songs from my local music collection and anything I come across. I'm always adding new tracks on the fly. Just hit shuffle and see what kind of stuff you kind find. The goal would be to eventually branch this into sub-playlists with various themes, but this works as a starting point.
363
Off Topic / Re: real talk: is rey a mary sue
« on: October 30, 2017, 09:12:30 AM »
My biggest issue with the Sequel Trilogy is that the villains aren't compelling.
The strength of Star Wars isn't from the heroes, but its villains. A large theme in the franchise is the idea of redemption in the name of what's right, and so you need to have a villain you genuinely care about; both the fallible human aspect, but also the credible evil-doer who really could end the entire universe.
Obviously, the best example is Vader. He got two movie series' to tell his entire arc, and thus the morals surrounding his story are some of the most core ones to Star Wars as a whole. The Original Trilogy introduced us to this horrifying, twisted, terrifying figure with a distinct breathing pattern designed to send shivers up your spine; we feared the monster. Slowly though, things become unraveled and we start to see the human side come out, and now not only is Vader an epic badass, but we really start to care about him coming back to do the right thing.
Palpatine is my personal favourite, but Count Dooku also deserves a lot of respect. Ian McDiarmid and Christopher Lee just did brilliant jobs (if occasionally going a bit hammy, but that's the territory) of building these characters who seem like respectable father figures with nice sides, and as their evil plot comes unveiled, you still are left hoping for redemption before the bitter end.
But come to the Sequel Trilogy, and who do we have that matches this archetype? It can't be the Vader-wannabe; despite the actor's best efforts, he is written as a whiny emo brat, with a cancerous addiction to a villain who has become a lot less cool after seeing his obsession. You have a masked figure (big disgusting not-quite-alien face), but for now all we know is that he's Episode V Sidious, Lite Edition, as they've refused to show us that his character runs deeper. Finally, Phasma has unfortunately become the evil side's butt monkey, and doesn't appear to have any Sith potential anyway.
Maybe I stand alone on this; I just need that contrast between the optimistic and energetic youth of the typical Light Side heroes (a lot of Star Wars stories focus on young Jedi being trained and overcoming difficult personal battles) and the cynical and standoffish maturity of well written Sith characters (a lot of whom are older, well studied and have clearly become disillusioned with the aloofness and often fecklessness of the Jedi). I don't need two sides of complete nimrods being bland.
The strength of Star Wars isn't from the heroes, but its villains. A large theme in the franchise is the idea of redemption in the name of what's right, and so you need to have a villain you genuinely care about; both the fallible human aspect, but also the credible evil-doer who really could end the entire universe.
Obviously, the best example is Vader. He got two movie series' to tell his entire arc, and thus the morals surrounding his story are some of the most core ones to Star Wars as a whole. The Original Trilogy introduced us to this horrifying, twisted, terrifying figure with a distinct breathing pattern designed to send shivers up your spine; we feared the monster. Slowly though, things become unraveled and we start to see the human side come out, and now not only is Vader an epic badass, but we really start to care about him coming back to do the right thing.
Palpatine is my personal favourite, but Count Dooku also deserves a lot of respect. Ian McDiarmid and Christopher Lee just did brilliant jobs (if occasionally going a bit hammy, but that's the territory) of building these characters who seem like respectable father figures with nice sides, and as their evil plot comes unveiled, you still are left hoping for redemption before the bitter end.
But come to the Sequel Trilogy, and who do we have that matches this archetype? It can't be the Vader-wannabe; despite the actor's best efforts, he is written as a whiny emo brat, with a cancerous addiction to a villain who has become a lot less cool after seeing his obsession. You have a masked figure (big disgusting not-quite-alien face), but for now all we know is that he's Episode V Sidious, Lite Edition, as they've refused to show us that his character runs deeper. Finally, Phasma has unfortunately become the evil side's butt monkey, and doesn't appear to have any Sith potential anyway.
Maybe I stand alone on this; I just need that contrast between the optimistic and energetic youth of the typical Light Side heroes (a lot of Star Wars stories focus on young Jedi being trained and overcoming difficult personal battles) and the cynical and standoffish maturity of well written Sith characters (a lot of whom are older, well studied and have clearly become disillusioned with the aloofness and often fecklessness of the Jedi). I don't need two sides of complete nimrods being bland.
364
Games / Re: steam quality control is great
« on: October 30, 2017, 01:56:03 AM »
Valve supposedly believes that Quality Control or Quality Assurance (separate concepts, btw) would impose a kind of bureaucracy that would take away from having an "open platform", which if you've been following SteamOS, Greenlight and Source 2, would know that in a very warped way is their goal. They only do minimal checking to ensure the contents of a developer's upload are somewhat legal (viruses and even games without executables have been distributed through Steam in the past).
I have a lot of respect for Nintendo being the first company to implement their own Quality Control scheme, called "Lot Checks". Sony and Microsoft followed with their TCRs and TRCs respectively. One of the reasons SEGA failed as a hardware publisher is because they spat in the face of Nintendo's "bullying" of developers into making sure their games met minimal standards and let the market be open (they did a lot of things differently just to get at Nintendo; one example is letting developers source their own carts/discs while Nintendo forced devs to buy direct from them with Nintendo taking a 20% cut on every cart sold).
I should say; Quality Control doesn't weed out games with stuffty graphics, boring gameplay, bad controls etc. It just so happens that the kind of people who pump out that purile stuff also happen to fail on other basic requirements at the same time. Lot Checks/TRCs/TCRs focus on objective technical qualities such as "all loadscreens must complete in under 60 seconds", "the game must never directly forget with the hardware and instead use our API calls to be safe" or "the game must never record and upload microphone recordings".
I have a lot of respect for Nintendo being the first company to implement their own Quality Control scheme, called "Lot Checks". Sony and Microsoft followed with their TCRs and TRCs respectively. One of the reasons SEGA failed as a hardware publisher is because they spat in the face of Nintendo's "bullying" of developers into making sure their games met minimal standards and let the market be open (they did a lot of things differently just to get at Nintendo; one example is letting developers source their own carts/discs while Nintendo forced devs to buy direct from them with Nintendo taking a 20% cut on every cart sold).
I should say; Quality Control doesn't weed out games with stuffty graphics, boring gameplay, bad controls etc. It just so happens that the kind of people who pump out that purile stuff also happen to fail on other basic requirements at the same time. Lot Checks/TRCs/TCRs focus on objective technical qualities such as "all loadscreens must complete in under 60 seconds", "the game must never directly forget with the hardware and instead use our API calls to be safe" or "the game must never record and upload microphone recordings".
365
Off Topic / Re: real talk: is rey a mary sue
« on: October 30, 2017, 01:42:13 AM »Historically though, the Jedi and Sith have always been Force-sensitive users.Yeah, I just didn't want somebody to call me out on some Extended Canon example of people without powers who call themselves Jedi or Sith aye.
Actually, I think in KotOR's story, the Sith employed a lot of non-sensitives to fill out the Sith Trooper army which they deployed on places like Taris to keep order while the real sith dealth with real problems. You could argue they're not really Sith though, and just mercs looking for a stable salary. I did recall having to go through a number of non-sensitive executives who might have been into the higher goals, though...
366
Off Topic / Re: real talk: is rey a mary sue
« on: October 30, 2017, 01:11:20 AM »
I think the lore implications is that the Skywalker line extends before Anakin, because he got those genes from somewhere. In either case, it's a good point to bring up. It could even be a massive logical error to fit the story they wanted to tell.
It's not easier to become a Sith Lord than a Jedi Knight, since they're fundamentally the same thing. Anakin is a nice case-study, because I don't believe he was ever really a true Sith or Jedi until he had reached about Episode IV-level Vader.
Theoretically, the difference between Light and Dark is the ideology and application of your power. You still stem energy from the same source (the Well of Life or whatever the forget it's called), but you just apply it differently, for different goals.
True Dark Side characters don't just destroy everything and eat babies for fun. That would be like a "Jedi" who used their powers to be the best servant in an old person's retirement home. It's an inexperienced, immature worldview and that is why you hear a lot about the Jedi and Sith having giant libraries and philosophy classes all throughout the canon.
You are not a real Jedi or Sith until you understand the full extent of what the end goal is, and aim towards that. Until then, you're just some dude who has superpowers.
See, the Jedi and Sith are two big ancient groups want really just want the same thing; peace. But the Jedi mean to do it through diplomacy and the freedom of individuals to choose their fate (so long as it benefits rather than harms), while the Sith believe in crushing any opposition and imposing their rule for the benefit of all. There's a lot of juicy philosophical debate you can have (and Knights of the Old Republic II is a game designed entirely as a criticism of both sides, so I highly recommend you read Scorchy's Let's Play for more details).
One more time: "Jedi" and "Sith" don't refer to people who have powers, they refer to the two ancient ideological groups whose members may or may not have powers and want to reach their own version of "peace".
if she was tapping into the dark side i could understandSorry to nerd out here, but I need to make a point of this.
It's not easier to become a Sith Lord than a Jedi Knight, since they're fundamentally the same thing. Anakin is a nice case-study, because I don't believe he was ever really a true Sith or Jedi until he had reached about Episode IV-level Vader.
Theoretically, the difference between Light and Dark is the ideology and application of your power. You still stem energy from the same source (the Well of Life or whatever the forget it's called), but you just apply it differently, for different goals.
True Dark Side characters don't just destroy everything and eat babies for fun. That would be like a "Jedi" who used their powers to be the best servant in an old person's retirement home. It's an inexperienced, immature worldview and that is why you hear a lot about the Jedi and Sith having giant libraries and philosophy classes all throughout the canon.
You are not a real Jedi or Sith until you understand the full extent of what the end goal is, and aim towards that. Until then, you're just some dude who has superpowers.
See, the Jedi and Sith are two big ancient groups want really just want the same thing; peace. But the Jedi mean to do it through diplomacy and the freedom of individuals to choose their fate (so long as it benefits rather than harms), while the Sith believe in crushing any opposition and imposing their rule for the benefit of all. There's a lot of juicy philosophical debate you can have (and Knights of the Old Republic II is a game designed entirely as a criticism of both sides, so I highly recommend you read Scorchy's Let's Play for more details).
One more time: "Jedi" and "Sith" don't refer to people who have powers, they refer to the two ancient ideological groups whose members may or may not have powers and want to reach their own version of "peace".
367
Off Topic / Re: real talk: is rey a mary sue
« on: October 30, 2017, 12:54:53 AM »
I don't like Rey personally because she is a true Jedi by way of personality.
The problem is that Jedi are masters of their mind, and controlling their own emotions is a very important part of their creed. To lose yourself in any of the normal emotions that drive interesting characterisation is to begin down the path towards the Dark Side. Basically, it's a serious job for No-Fun-Allowed advocates.
Obi-Wan is about the only exception to this who still fits into the role well, and that's why he is my favourite Jedi character.
The problem is that Jedi are masters of their mind, and controlling their own emotions is a very important part of their creed. To lose yourself in any of the normal emotions that drive interesting characterisation is to begin down the path towards the Dark Side. Basically, it's a serious job for No-Fun-Allowed advocates.
Obi-Wan is about the only exception to this who still fits into the role well, and that's why he is my favourite Jedi character.
368
Off Topic / Re: YouTube user demonstrating how Facebook listens to conversations to serve ads
« on: October 29, 2017, 10:41:40 PM »
The thing to remember is that all of the data collected and generated by advertising algorithms is connected to anonymous IDs which link up to Facebook accounts, and the data itself is usually complete gibberish as it's all binary data used by the systems involved. Nobody can take advantage of anything related to advertising to steal your identity or in any way disrupt your privacy, and the systems are falliable (I often get the most ridiculous eBay, Amazon, Reddit or Tumblr ads on Facebook because people send me links to disgusting content when get sweeped by advertising systems).
The people creating advertising systems don't give a stuff about you; it's all about the data proving they're doing their job so they can make a profit. Unlike the TV/Radio age where you can generalise and say "Oh we got a hundred million views" without accurate reporting (there's no way to know how many individual members are engaging the same or multiple devices since they're one-way signals), the companies who pay massive bucks to advertise are a lot more stingy in where their cash goes since online advertising can report hyper-accurate statistics, proving that this or that ad didn't get as many views/clicks as that one.
The people creating advertising systems don't give a stuff about you; it's all about the data proving they're doing their job so they can make a profit. Unlike the TV/Radio age where you can generalise and say "Oh we got a hundred million views" without accurate reporting (there's no way to know how many individual members are engaging the same or multiple devices since they're one-way signals), the companies who pay massive bucks to advertise are a lot more stingy in where their cash goes since online advertising can report hyper-accurate statistics, proving that this or that ad didn't get as many views/clicks as that one.
370
Games / Re: Destiny Megathread - PC Release 24th October
« on: October 28, 2017, 12:37:36 PM »I'm having the crashing issue as well, but I'm using nvidia. I assume I don't have the SSSE3 thing as well?No, instruction sets are related to the CPU, and if you launched the game successfully then you don't have the AMD CPU bug. Sounds like maybe a cache issue, corrupt file or maybe a GPU driver issue, hard to pin-point exactly though.
371
Off Topic / Re: I forgeted up badly
« on: October 28, 2017, 12:16:13 AM »
Typical of furries to be paying no attention to what really matter and end up in a load of stuff.
372
Off Topic / Re: Catalonia declares independence as Spain moves in [ITT Deus Ex hates minorities]
« on: October 28, 2017, 12:15:10 AM »
It's pretty loving shaky ground, mate. You've walked onto a fault line and yet still can't feel the ground go beneath you.
373
Off Topic / Re: Catalonia declares independence as Spain moves in [ITT Deus Ex hates minorities]
« on: October 28, 2017, 12:11:22 AM »
374
Games / Re: Destiny Megathread - PC Release 24th October
« on: October 27, 2017, 11:03:02 PM »He's probably using Nvidia. Nvidia optimized the living forget out of D2.AMD were claiming a 50% increase in FPS on their newest drivers. The problem is that older AMD CPUs don't have the SSSE3 instruction set, but Bungie is now working on a patch due to go live next week.
What why? Rolls gave much more reason to grind, and rolls made it so guns that were sub-optimal cause of their stats could be good due to their rolls.I absolutely loving hated the rolls system. I dunno about other people but I often put all the effort in to randomly get a good gun I've wanted for months, only for it to have a bad roll and screw up my Crucible plays.
Rolls were a stupid way to solve the content-drought issue, and I'm glad Bungie's newest changes coming soon are a better way to handle the lack of stuff to do rather than punish players for playing.
375
Off Topic / Re: Catalonia declares independence as Spain moves in [ITT Deus Ex hates minorities]
« on: October 27, 2017, 10:52:26 PM »You have no idea what I'm talking aboutApparently you're on an intellectual level well above all of us because I don't have a loving clue what your handicapped point is either.