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For literally everything that isn't this forum, I use a browser that runs incognito mode by default. So "my" YT feed only has neckbeards raging about XYZ if I go into YT through one such video. Otherwise it's all blissfully generic music/memes/movie trailers in the feed. If you ever needed proof that companies tracking you is evil, there you have it...

The results are inconclusive because "not statistically significant" does not mean "strictly false". In a scientific context this may be more or less interchangeable with "functionally false", but epistemologically it is not. Typically science does not do impossibility proofs because they are hard(er) and scientists get better mileage out of affirmative results. Yeah, if the guy had gone the route of explaining the basics he might not have been instantaneously shouted down, but I don't think there's a chance in hell he wouldn't have been otherwise silenced as merely a proponent of "western" science because it (and by extension, he) is closing the door to magical thinking.

Does the MIT council hold exclusive authority to declare that unscientific claims are... unscientific? And therefore worthless in a scientific context. Any and all scientific inquiries into the supernatural have, unsurprisingly, delivered inconclusive results. Science by definition cannot disprove phenomena that are outside of the natural world (i.e. supernatural), which means this kind of hogwash can never truly be put to rest using science. It also takes common sense, but as we all know, that's the least common of all senses. What you are suggesting is that the guy should have tried to protect the woman's fee-fees by explaining to her the foundations of science rather than just going "lol no". Any such explanations are doomed to fail because, by her own admission, she did science in HS which is where this would have been explained to her—she simply chooses to disregard that because muh colonialism. Someone who has no understanding of how the scientific process works or even what it is concerned with (or deliberately rejects such concepts) has no business making statements about the need for "decolonizing science" so that it accommodates magical thinking of all things. You should, in general, not pontificate about things you have no knowledge of, and expect people not to laugh at you just because you are <minority>. Because if that was just some meshback in the deep US instead, the video would be comedy gold with Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel's theme as soundtrack. Fools have no right to be suffered and waste everyone's time.

Because someone says that "ritual x causes lightning strikes remotely" is not really a thing that happens that person doesn't understand science? Sorry, but it would have to be the woman who says it happens who provided the evidence that her extremely unlikely and fringe position is not to be immediately laughed out of the room. We simply do not have unlimited resources and time to conduct studies and build experiments to debunk every bull**** claim that people come up with. So we use skepticism based on our current understanding of the world to vet things that may be worth pursuing to expand the current boundaries of our knowledge, and throw out dark ages-era superstition and intellectual cul-de-sacs. Good luck persuading the MIT council or whatever to grant you funding to study the supernatural effects of voodoo. When they give you a raised eyebrow as a reply, go ahead and explain to them that they don't really "understand science". Wait, that actually sounds like it could make you a fat stack of YT monies, if nothing else.

But-but... why would you go through K2 and not use the restoration mod? I understand the quality of some of the stuff added by mods is uneven (M4-78), but TSLRCM is pretty much a must. Otherwise, from the moment you step on Malachor, it's placeholder-quality content. You doing some sort of penance?

Speaking of which... I should have a D2 disc buried somewhere. I might give it a whirl if I can get off my ass and dig it up.

You misspelled "state capitalism".

back to big stompy robits September 10th, 2019

Haha, most of those are actually back-and-forths with members of the mod team. I've been a very naughty boy. Turns out I did receive the beta key. Thanks anyway man, I appreciate it!

Bethesda swindles $200 CE owners out of promised canvas bags, blames it on "unavailability" of materials https://twitter.com/Fallout/status/1067908200182222850 Bonus points for throwing the temp contract worker under the bus, while confirming that what they said is, in fact, accurate.

Xenonauts-2 Closed Beta Launched I think I should be eligible for this, but I haven't received any keys yet. Maybe it's just that I'm cheaper than even I think.

I'm pretty sure that games like Dark Sun (the SSI RPG), Moonstone and Star Control 2 had a difficulty that was designed to make the games primarily entertaining enough to play without being trivial, rather than as another mechanism to extract revenue. It may have been one element in a commercial product, so you could argue that technically the aim was profit, but that's extremely reductionist. The design-by-numbers approach may be atrocious, but it's hard to dispute that it, alongside a marketing budget in the tens of millions produces the kind of roi that publicly traded companies are after. It's only when they get cute and try to push the envelope that sales may be seriously affected. And at the same time, "cult" titles where all the bells and whistles and assorted fluff take a backseat to strong and/or innovative gameplay systems and narratives have a disturbing tendency to land the companies making them in financial dire straits. I'm really looking forward to Iron Tower's space game, but calling it even a niche product is a bit of an understatement. I never played LotRO, but it's a Turbine game, right? That sounds fairly similar to how DDO worked, and it's another example of MTX done right. On top of that they sold each of the adventure packs separately which you could buy with cash shop currency earned ingame (or from the subscriber stipend), which provided an incentive for F2P players to keep at it without affecting subscribers. I think there were XP boosters that helped if you were crazy about reincarnations and that sort of thing, but that was it. It's a MMO so the grind is still there, but it's not a means to push you towards the cash shop, so as you say, it doesn't feel exploitative. I think Star Trek Online's model was on the more benign side as well, even if all the cool ships came in lootboxes. Never actually subbed there so I don't know how premium players were affected, though. In any event, those are online games with a recurring spending model meant on its face to fund ongoing development of additional content. You know what you are getting into. This recent trend of turning single-player, offline games into GaaS-lite abortions is bull**** greedy ****ery, plain and simple, and it needs to die.

I guess Brian Fargo was drunk as well, seeing as how Avellone was replying to him and all. Like, is alcohol abuse a common problem among former Interplay employees?

Bethesda Reportedly Rescinds Offer For ‘Fallout 76’ PC Refunds You know, I'm finding it somewhat hard to sympathize with folks asking for a refund (in the EU at least). They did consent to being ****ed right up the ass by the company, by "waiving their right" to a refund. On the other hand, generally it is illegal to swindle people, even if they are complete morons. edit: it looks like any such waiver has no actual value, legally speaking. It's just a douche move to deter attempts at getting a refund. It may be necessary to threaten legal action to get through the CS drones who handle tickets, though.

Joke's on him. This is the mirror universe... and it always was.

Failing an actual Sikh (or Indian, sadly I can't name any), I remember reading that Javier Bardem could be a good fit. He's got the intimidating presence, and he can also be smarmy and slimy as needed, as in Skyfall. That was a few years ago, though. If they are going for a recently stranded Khan, they'd probably be better served by finding a younger actor.

Star Wars is written in a way that pretty much everything can be explained with The Force, because the universe never set any boundaries on what The Force can and cannot do. Quite to opposite actually, we are led to believe that it can do literally anything. So in this case, "because magic" is quite literal. The only time I really thought that it sucks was when Leia did a Jesus in space in the latest movie, that was beyond ridiculous. Other than that, it's fine to me. Yeah, the power of the force seems to be unlimited in Star Wars, and that's fine. Using the force as an excuse to explain why Jedi must all be drones drinking the kool-aid and no other traditions can exist strikes me as exceedingly dumb. Even more so than Space Jesus Leia. Bad writing is bad.

if you think I've reached peak autism...

Forum Wars Ep II - The Wall of Text Strikes Back The central theme of Star Wars is good vs evil. Exploring how overbearing religious institutions filled with good intentions can do evil out of fear of what they don't understand fits perfectly in the setting. It also sets the scene perfectly for actually good characters to remain steadfast in the face of evil perpetrated in the name of good intentions. Moreover, the crux of a given story is whatever the writer wants to write about. It's not even about how the world is perceived. It's simply about the possibility of the Jedi not knowing everything about the force. We do know that this is actually the case, as evidenced by how hilariously bad they are at using the force to stop bad **** going down or even correctly interpreting their own ****ing prophecies. But sure, what the series needs is more death star ripoffs and less exploration of characters, factions and the lore in general. We know that Disney agrees, at least. I wouldn't. I'm perfectly fine with Yoda being a flawed, mortal, limited character. His hypocrisy makes him all the more realistic and believable. Well, as you say, he's the best the Jedi have. And you're the one arguing that the Jedi have a monopoly on the correct use of the force. If he's the best, and there can be no way to better use the force, then the dark side IS more powerful. We know that this is false, so Jedi clearly do not know everything and there's room for other interpretations. Nope. The forum software is notoriously bad. If you've been writing a post for some time, however, the forum does save periodically, so it's possible to recover it even if your browser crashes. You should have a notice on the lower left corner of the quick reply window reading "Last auto saved: <time>". Click on that, and a new window with whatever's been saved will open. I'm arguing none of the sort. Remember, this all started with "grey" Jedi. Folks with views on what the force is and how best to wield it that don't necessarily mirror the glaringly flawed and incomplete mainstream doctrine of the order, who may or may not be correct, and may or may not end up doing more harm than good. The possibility that such people can exist in the SW universe is literally all I'm arguing. I'm not sure Star Wars has any identity beyond the old themes of good vs evil, the importance of family and friends, and underdogs winning in the end, in a space fantasy context. There's plenty of room there for lots of things.

Because it serves no narrative purpose. It doesn't by itself make the setting distinct, it doesn't advance a plot. It's simply there because the writer failed to come up with a compelling explanation that doesn't stretch the suspension of disbelief. Nah. Magical werewolf transformations serve a purpose if you are writing a story in which werewolves are somehow relevant to the story. If you are writing a crime thriller and then suddenly go "the baddie was immune to bullets because, uh, he's a werewolf!" with no prior explanation or foreshadowing and the only reason why that happens is that you cannot come up with anything better, then yes—it's bad writing. Cosmic horrors are no problem because the whole setting is grounded on the premise that cosmic horrors beyond understanding exist. One of the elements of the setting is that humans are no different from humans in our reality. So if in that world you had an, up to that point, regular human walk up to Cthulhu and eat him "because magic!", then yes—it's bad writing. But you did: It seems Disney judged all that malarkey was undermining the IP's central conflict and USP. Cant say i blame them. You cannot "mystically understand" something, which is why Yoda can't explain **** to Luke: "there is no why" and such. You can possibly argue that mysticism can reveal whatever truths and stuff, but actual understanding requires a rational process that relies on questions and answers. Mysticism sidesteps all of that. I'm not inserting anything anywhere. I practice safe internetting at all times, thank you very much. That's cool. How does absolute and perfect knowledge necessarily follow from it being a mystical approach? Well, yeah. They won't get fined or jailed for not doing so (although it's debatable whether they should be), so they don't *have* to. But introducing stuff without explanation or purpose, just for the hell of it generally makes for, you guessed it—bad writing.

Plenty of fictional settings have all individuals subscribing to some belief or political outlook, with no dissidence—this is explained as "because magic" (hive minds, nerve stapling, what have you). The difference is that that sort of thing tends to be a plot device and it is established in advance as part of the "fictional" element, not as a defense against complaints that something makes no sense or needlessly stretches the suspension of disbelief, while serving no narrative purpose other than covering the writer's failure to craft a consistent setting. Using "because magic" to explain action at a distance is fine, if you need that for your story. Using it to dismiss inconsistencies in the internal logic of the world you've crafted is bad writing, is all I'm saying. In this case "humans are not a hive mind and are fully capable of doctrinal disagreement" is one of the (unspoken) foundations of most fictional settings, including Star Wars.

Alien: Blackout Has Been Trademarked by 20th Century Fox Possible reveal soon(ish)?

Paradox isn't making Werewolf. They aren't even publishing it. The developer is Cyanide and the publisher is Focus Home Interactive. Of late, I remain unimpressed by either. Deathwing was a broken mess and the publisher's stubborn radio silence during the whole thing was just appalling. Styx bored me to tears. And the new Cthulhu game is not very good, from what I've read. FHI seems to have completely abandoned Battlefleet Gothic in favor of just pumping out a sequel, and the game's fans weren't happy at all. Pump 'n' dump seems to be their motto. A Harebrained WoD game looks good on paper, but they probably just don't have the resources to make something on the scale of Bloodlines, especially if they are going to keep supporting BATTLETECH. I'd settle for something the size of Dragonfall, with turn-based combat, but I reckon I'm in the minority and that's the kind of thing companies don't do because it devalues IP or whatever.

Um. Yeah, about that...

EA is the same. I guess any major publisher with a GaaS/MTX scheme is going to report more or less the same result. They can't stop because if they do, their market position may be compromised and then they risk being bought out by someone bigger... who in all likelihood engages in those practices anyway. And if they don't stop, they'll be the ones buying studios up, milking them for all they are worth, and running them into the ground. Win/win scenario, right? In any case, the idea is to cater to rich people by giving them the means to also display status symbols online and "stand out from the crowd"—that's literally the raison d'être of luxury items. You can only have this e-lambo if you open the $10k worth of lootboxes that we estimate it'll cost you to get it, based on drop odds.