algroth

Sorry to hear about you family and spinal issues, Gromnir. Hope things are as bearable for you as they can be without medication. It is a very good point you make, and I hope it to be something more doctors take consideration of at this time, for their patients' sake. On the family note, similarly my 64-year-old mother is already misbehaving and trying to sneak a friend in for an afternoon visit whilst in full lockdown. She complains the measures are too harsh whilst not realizing her attitude is a case in point of why we need quarantine in the first place. Unfortunately it's the older folks, used to a set way of life, who suffer this upheaval to their daily routine the most, but it's for their safety especially. Anyway, hope the best for you and your family.

I wish the best for your family and your MiL. Over my end there's two people fairly close to me who are currently going through chemo and are thus very susceptible to the disease (or any disease for that matter), so I'm pretty sensitive about being downplaying the pandemic as "mild" or "just a flu" (not saying you implied either thing btw), because it leads to a lot of people worried only about themselves to pretend their life is the only risk to consider, and so long as they're not in any danger they're fine to do as they please even when infected.

The issue isn't the majority of people, it's the minority that's at serious risk. The elderly, people with their immune system compromised by other conditions or treatments, etc. With a disease this virulent, even a mere 1% mortality rate can mean the death of millions across the globe, nevermind the collapse of the healthcare structure and the effects this could have in other people in need of assistance and so on.

Over here in Argentina we've just announced a total lockdown. It sucks, of course, and there's no real upside to any of this, but for a slight bit of positivity, I'm honestly quite happy with the way the government's been handling the situation, it's night and day compared to USA. Contrary to Trump who acts like the war is won every day despite his absolute lethargy in action, here Fernandez seems very candid about the limitations of our capabilities and rather than use them as an excuse, thinks and acts ahead of the issue. We're on lockdown despite no community spread cases being confirmed, because we're acting preventively and not reactively. There's a real effort here to flatten the curve, to make of the crisis *not* a self-serving partisan affair, to act instead of pretend to act; and in all of this it's pretty interesting to see how the political divide seems to have narrowed since. I haven't seen this sort of unity in fifteen years.

So, anyone?

Hi! So earlier this month in a different forum I spend time in, I took part in a "music league" game, which I thought I could propose here for anyone that might be interested. The general gist is this: the game takes place over a set number of rounds; each of us proposes a single track to fit a round's theme so as to create a playlist around said theme; once the submissions have been sent, we listen to the playlist and share a number of points across the tracks we liked the most (also putting negative points for the ones we disliked); the player with the most points that round wins the round, but the player who collects the most points across every round wins the league. The general idea here is to share music with every other participant and promote some discussion on the music we listen to. I figured the amount of rounds could coincide with the number of players so long as these don't exceed a certain number (otherwise we'll see what we can do), and each player can propose a topic for each round (can be anything - era, region, genre, theme/descriptor (e.g. happiness, spiritual, whatever), types of music or performances (covers, duets, etc.), and so on, so long as it's general enough to allow for several artists and for users to have some freedom over what to submit). We'd be using a web app called Music League, and it is based on Spotify so one would have to have a Spotify account (doesn't need to be Premium or anything fancy). How does the idea sound? For those interested, please let me know and if we can get enough people on board, we can go ahead and do it!

Been on a Don Cherry binge this last week or so. Absolutely fantastic stuff all around.

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, one of the founders of industrial music, has passed away after battling leukemia for two and a half years.

Very nice interview.

Was just kidding. I thought his criticisms weren't hating, and neither were you.

Why you hatin' on my boy Skazz, Bruce? In all seriousness, though, I don't mind romance in games. It's a bit of a case by case basis, if the writers feel it's appropriate and they have a good idea for it I'd say "go ahead" - but at the same time it shouldn't be approached as a necessity or expectation, nor should it be forced on players who wish not to partake in it. But to be honest, I love me plenty of RPG romances, be they the ones in Torment, Mask of the Betrayer, Viconia's in Baldur's Gate II, etc. Are they "realistic", as some others have criticized? Well, no, but they're emotionally satisfying and engaging all the same, like a lot of romance films and the likes out there. But, again, if you are going to put a romance in the game, make sure it's interesting, don't just put one in because "there needs to be one" or "there is demand for it".

nvm

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/10/21173240/horizon-zero-dawn-pc-sony-playstation-ps4-exclusive-game-release Not sure if this has been shared yet, but Horizon Zero Dawn is coming to PC in Summer 2020 apparently.

It's even worse than we thought.

Finally finished The Witcher 3's main campaign today. Was alright, though I far preferred Hearts of Stone which I did halfway through this playthrough as well. It's enjoyable enough but from a gameplay perspective it's a bit of a death by a thousand cuts and from a narrative standpoint it's also well-written and enjoyable enough but terribly padded out and overall rather insubstantial, like a fantasy RPG Endgame of sorts. I looked the game up on Glitchwave and this review by vodsel felt pretty accurate at the end of the day: With this in mind though, Blood & Wine already starts with a Seven Samurai reference of sorts so I'm definitely digging it for the short while I've played it.

Max von Sydow

McCoy Tyner, 81. An absolute legend, one of the finest.

The way it blends and shifts genres is really impressive, Hitch****ian almost, and all the while it creates a rather dense and very interesting observation of class dynamics and so on. It's really impressive, both thought-provoking and really great fun. I quite liked this breakdown of it (warning: spoilers for someof Bong's other films): Also, whilst not strictly as good or as unique a genre blender as Parasite, Knives Out shares a few similarities in feel and in the way it handles class dynamics, and is also great fun. Well worth watching for more films of this style!

It's great, innit?