xzar_monty

I made an exception and clicked that Daily Mail link. I shouldn't have. In the second paragraph, the tabloid writes, "The 70-year-old Russian leader, whose health has visibly deteriorated since he launched his war in Ukraine..." Has it? That's not clear at all, I think. Anyway, writing stuff like that is extremely bad form, in my view, and thus strengthens my opinion that you should never read the Daily Mail.

It's really unpleasant that it's like this, but I am extremely happy that Serbia are out. I'm sure no one at all was surprised when it was the Serbian fans who engaged in racistic chants and it took FIFA ages to react to it. There will be no acknowledgment of the fan problem in Serbia, of course. It will be someone else's fault, of course. I suppose the same will hold in the Dusan Petkovic case: the former Serbia international, who got into the 2006 WC team thanks to blatant nepotism, was caught in the act of smuggling 115 kilograms of cocaine. Come on! That's for personal use only, one weekend with the boys. No way is he guilty of anything.

<woops, ignore, didn't immediately notice how old the article was>

Keir Giles, who I mentioned yesterday, has made some interesting new points about the situation in Ukraine. I think they are worth considering. Like: - The West is currently playing precisely according to Russian rules. The way the West is helping Ukraine is predicated on the idea that Russia shouldn't suffer any military consequences for its actions on its own territory. Zelenskyi has explicitly been told that he cannot strike back into Russia. - The West is doing this because Russia has actually won its information campaign, for the time being at least. The point of the campaign being the idea that opposing Russia would mean nuclear war and the end of the world. (According to Giles, there are no scenarios in Ukraine where the use of nuclear weapons would be a good idea for Russia.) - There is currently no reason for the official Russia to try to make any change for the better (in our estimation of what is better). Putin has made a lot of effort to eliminate everyone who has an idea of a more Western Russia. And many of those he hasn't eliminated have now fled the country. Again, whether he is right, I don't know. And elsewhere, Lavrov has just blamed NATO's rampant expansion for everything. This tallies well with the idea that Russia seriously believes that NATO forces other countries to join, like the SU forced countries to join the Warsaw Pact. He's constantly in denial about the fact that NATO has no desire to attack; heck, if it had, the perfect opportunity would have been there since February: Russia's forces are in Ukraine, there has never been a better moment to invade Russia. But no one wants to do it, despite Russia's paranoia about it.

As far as I know, the Iranian team has been the bravest one so far by quite some distance. The Dutch and the English teams gave up their protests so easily, even if there was nothing substantial at stake for them.

Germany's famous 7-1 win over Brazil was one of the hardest ones to see, in terms of how the Brazilian players were afterwards. I think these are relevant concerns as well: how good you're expected to be as a country, where the game is played and who you're playing against. Brazil's collapse ticked all the boxes in terms of it being as humiliating as possible.

Yes. This was one way for Stalin to betray the west after WW2. He promised to only be nasty towards the nazis. But for him, everyone who wasn't a communist was a nazi.

The British writer Keir Giles, who has a new book out (Russia's War On Everybody) makes some interesting claims. Such as: - Russia does seriously believe that NATO forces other countries to join the alliance and that the countries actually have no interest in joining. This stems from Russia's own history of forcing other countries to join the Warsaw pact and following a similar policy in other ways as well. It would be good for "the West" to know this. - Because all talk about democracy, human rights and the rule of law are just words without meaning for Russia, Russia seriously believes that everthing concerning all this is also just a show in "the West". This is related to the fact that Moscow's inability to engage in (what we in "the West" regard as) any normal co-operation has remained constant not only for decades but centuries. One main point is that there are extremely severe misunderstandings on both sides and that the enormous differences between Russia and "the West" should be understood much more clearly. (This made me think of the oft-repeated claim that "the West" is slow to understand that Russia only understands force; negotiations are meaningless for Russia, and there is no cultural pressure of having to adhere to what has been agreed.) Whether Giles is correct or not, I don't know.

I think it's pretty simple. In this game, when it comes to dialogue options, generally it's Lawful = Evil, and Evil = Stupid. Every once in a while, there's also Lawful = Stupid.

I would argue that "the point", as a viewpoint expressed in words, is essentially meaningless, and what matters is deeds -- although I admit that in this case it's hard for an individual to do anything that has an impact. But I would still compare your stance to that of a new store opening on your street, you first saying that you don't like it but then going to buy something from that store while still maintaining that you don't like it. In this instance, your expressed dislike is meaningless compared to the fact that you actually give money to the store you say you don't like, thus actually supporting it.

@HoonDing: Thanks for that! Nena had some pretty good melodies, it has to be said. Some of the 80s pop was ridiculously good... This one's a great karaoke song for train wrecks if the guy singing it doesn't realize his limitations. Like, he can maybe do a few of the steps in the chorus but can he go all the way. (Living on a Prayer is another that just destroys people. For the record: I can't sing either, no way.)

"The point's been made, now let's ignore it", is kind of what you're saying, isn't it?

I'm happy they use the term "rooster" there. I've read of this culture before in English, and sometimes they use the word cóck instead of rooster, which obviously leads everyone's mind astray. If Prigozhin really was a rooster in the prison, he slept next to the toilet (i.e. in the filthiest possible place) and he was free-for-all as far as raping was concerned. Even if he wasn't, there's no doubt he can be portrayed that way by someone powerful enough with a reason to do so.

Well I suppose it is middle of the road by definition when considering those two other sides, but I wouldn't call it bland. And I agree with a lot of what you say. Btw, do you think that both P:K and P:WotR contain a surprising amount of design that is just plain unpleasant towards the player? This is my biggest gripe with the game, even bigger than the hilariously jejune writing. Many of the puzzles seem simply unfair (not as in too difficult but as in poorly designed in the first place), many of the immunities appear to be there just to annoy the player, some of the encounter design is borderline sadistic (i.e. the dragon if you happen to fail any of the pre-encounter checks), etc. I seriously wonder why they do this. I think I've played BG2 three times, and I never once reached level cap, although it has to be said that after a certain point, new levels bring nothing substantial. Anyway, I loved the fact that I had something more to aim for in every game. In my first PoE playthrough I reached level cap upon entering Twin Elms and I stopped right there for months. It was such a disappointment. (But it is also true that I have an awful lot of other things to do these days and I'm sometimes away from games for months upon months anyway.)

Another interesting bit of discussion from Russia, with some of the top propagandists involved. We know that the most recent constitution, from 1991, makes even the Duma meaningless (it's just for show), so discussions like these are likely to be even more meaningless when it comes to directly affecting power. But I suppose we can view this as a barometer of sorts. EDIT: This piece of news about the Bat Phone being used is also very interesting: https://www.reuters.com/world/us-russia-have-used-deconfliction-line-once-so-far-during-ukraine-war-source-2022-11-28/

Apologies for the necro, but anyway: I am firmly in the same camp with you on this, and reaching level cap tends to be the kiss of death for me in terms of interest. (This was the biggest failure in PoE and Deadfire for me, too.) However, I have recently learned that there are people who are equally firmly in the opposite camp: they prefer reaching level cap early on and then wielding Ultimate Power for the rest of the game; one of their arguments is that the highest-level abilities make little sense if you only get to use them for a moment. I understand the logic of that argument and I can see where they're coming from but boy, there's no way I can feel like they do. Along with the story, for me the essence of a good cRPG is the possibility of improvement and development.

Has to do with the life's work of the Congolese doctor and Nobel laureate Denis Mukwege and his efforts against sexual violence. Putin's Russia gets a mention as a place that has recently got much worse in this regard.

It's interesting and not pleasant at all to see(*) new (for me) evidence of Putin's sustained efforts to create a fantasy Russian empire that is in denial of everything that it doesn't enjoy about itself. For instance, already back in 2014, Putin signed a law that criminalizes "spreading false information about the activity of the USSR during the years of World War Two". This is ominous in itself, but it becomes much more ominous once you realize what constitutes false information. For instance, Russia officially denies the mass rapes conducted by the Red Army, which means that any historians who are interested in even studying the subject face really serious trouble. [And yes, I know about Japan. I know about the Allied in Kanagawa in 1945. Etc.] (*) Has to do with the documentation concerning my current work project.

Wow! Astonishing. @Mamoulian War and here's some intelligent discussion from Russia. This is not shocking anymore, even if it perhaps should be.

Disease has probably been a scourge of all armies throughout history, but Russia does things its own way in this, too. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1596819562443726848.html or

How strange, btw, that discussion on a brand new game just stopped about ten days ago, without ever taking off.

Ok, fair enough. My stance is pretty much along the lines of don't stoop low even if someone else does, which, to me, seems particularly appropriate when discussing a war. And in that particular comment the extraneous stuff weakened the otherwise strong argument by really quite a lot. If you think that's taking things too seriously then ok, but I disagree.

@Zoraptor: Whataboutism had nothing to do with what I was saying. I don't think I've even mentioned the term on these forums (to check, I did a search and came up with nothing, but I wouldn't rely on myself on technical matters), and I certainly don't think you've been whatabouting.

@Gromnir: Regarding that "Banner Over the Citadel" / "Kill the Giants" quest bug upon loading a save, I am now fighting for Drezen and the quest has appeared in my journal properly and in its proper place. Interesting to see what happens, if anything, once I complete the quest.

Well I must say that an angel romancing Camellia sounds intriguing. And interesting.