Messages

1

MM8BDM Discussion / "Playing to win" in 8BDM

« on: April 13, 2013, 08:04:15 AM »

This is an article written quite some time ago titled "playing to win". I've known about this article for a long time but forgotten the exact source, until someone reminded me today. I think it helps tremendously in understanding gaming in general, and what it means to win. A shorter version of this article as an excerpt can be found here.

This issue has been some what of a contention among older players of the game. Various people have, in this game, declared certain things to be "cheap" or unfair - which, as the article would say, is the hallmark of being a scrub. So that's why I'm curious to ask you: Do you think certain things in this game are "cheap"? Is anything cheap? Why do you think so? (and if you read the article, would you change your mind about it?)

2

Anything Goes / Brotip: You don't have to be in a relationship!

« on: February 15, 2013, 12:55:15 AM »

I somewhat prefer Japan's Valentine Day, in which men receive chocolates from women. (Mm) As it goes, chocolate is a great thing to go around and so I enjoy Valentine's Day for that reason. It's a largely commercialized holiday, but so is Christmas - and Christmas is great.

I am really sorry for all the people who had a bad day today and who are lonely ... I wish that all of you will find someone someday.

I'll probably slightly dread next year's February 14th either way. Hopefully I won't forget how I now feel about it.

What? Don't give into excuses like that. There's no real reason to dread some largely commercialized event that most people don't take terribly seriously anyway. Don't make the 14th into "Lonely Grievance Day", especially not a year in advance! There's no telling if you'll be in a relationship or not a year from now - unless you convince yourself of it first. If you don't like being "alone" (which I think is an exaggeration too for most), don't wait until one day of the year to acknowledge that you're unsatisfied. Just go out and start courting women tomorrow!

Since if you did it today, it'd be cliche.

3

Cutstuff Discussion and Feedback / Since Bik's avatar said "Tengu was here", we can infer you a

« on: February 13, 2013, 07:08:01 AM »

Not me; I'm not central to this community's survival (like Ivory is). It needs someone. At times I feel like the designated guy for that position, but I haven't been playing the role as much of late.

Like with many things. Anyone can cut weeds, but if no one does your garden's going to hell.

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Cutstuff Discussion and Feedback / I'm into beastiality, which basically makes me a furry anywa

« on: February 13, 2013, 05:24:34 AM »

It's not a joke.

Read the post again: Stylin' was upset that stonefunk claimed Stylin'(bikdark) wasn't homosexual. (It's difficult to tell, because stonefunk is not a native English speaker.) I wanted to make sure Stylin' knew Stonefunk is complimenting him, but at the same time, I am equally accepting of homosexuals. (Since Stylin' was upset at being told he was "not a fag", we have to consider the possibility that he is. It's similar to feminists who complain when they're referred to as "he" by people who are ignorant of their actual gender.) I mean no ill will toward either Stylin' or homosexuals, and I apologize if you were unable to understand that discourse.

On another note, "furfags" is largely an unrelated term: Most furries are heterosexual, and condone homosexuality (as I do). "Fags" is just a derogatory term tacked on the end as a basic insult, since "gay" is too tame now from overuse, similar to "tourneyfags". Actual accusations of homosexuality are mostly absent in these cases, similar to how someone who calls you a motherfucker generally does not accuse you of engaging in incestuous relationships, since the word's original meaning has been somewhat lost. Like homosexuals and furry relationships, however, I also condone incest and mean no offense toward you motherfuckers out there.

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Cutstuff Discussion and Feedback / The account purge would do less harm. I love you, Omni~

« on: February 13, 2013, 05:12:54 AM »

Necroposts are fine for the reason Kapus stated: they can serve a purpose. Don't muddle the truth with your misguided assertions. It doesn't matter if there's an infinite amount of people or thread starters who have arrived at the same faulty conclusion; it's still wrong.

I made the comparison the VK threads to point out the connection you haven't made: Redundant posts are inherently bad on their own (not necroposts). if you're okay with a dozen guys running around making the same complaint (that they can easily solve on their own) but raise arms at the sight of "necroposts", you're missing a point, encouraging a sense of self-entitlement, and being inconsistent in how you judge posts. If you just lock all of the threads without addressing the actual issue, those necroposts will just move into active threads, now no longer necroposts but equally useless. What's the point? Punish the users for breaking the rules, instead of shifting the blame to the fact that there's too many old threads running around.

However, of course, the OP reserves the right to bump his old thread, as well as trusty people of his (let's say: Yellow Devil and DarkAura are working on a map, but Yellow Devil started the thread. Considering the two are working together, DarkAura can STILL bump it into Yellow Devil's place).

Don't propose a rule based on an exception. It's arbitrary. How are you going define "trusty people" with any degree of certainty or consistency? Is Yellow Devil a trusty person to begin with? He's just as capable of making a pointless post in his own thread as anyone else. You leave the option of posting open, even if misuse has potential of occurring (as it does), and then punish violators accordingly.  That's how you treat a community you expect to behave reasonably the majority of the time.

6

The WWW board / Re: The music thread

« on: February 12, 2013, 06:55:10 AM »

I realize that, but it still goes with what I'm saying - why fit into /mu/? I can't say it's really something desirable or even conducive to finding your own interests. You'll never find what you like by looking at someone else's tastes and saying "Yeah! I want to listen to that guy's stuff." It's preposterous. Because what music you like IS a reflection of yourself - so trying stuff just to be like someone else would in fact, make you a poser.

Of course, you could just listen to it anyway. But then you would ask yourself: Do I really with that? Am I just a salamander?:

(click to show/hide)

7

Cutstuff Discussion and Feedback / I feel like imping Unix and necroposting, just to go against

« on: February 12, 2013, 06:41:02 AM »

I don't know who started this, but the OP's attitude in general is starting to irritate me, as I find it inherently flawed.

Necroposts are not bad.

Bad posts are bad. Bad posts, as in, irrelevant, off-topic, or unnecessary are bad. If a person revives an old topic to make a bad post, it might "magnify" that post since now everyone forces themselves to look at it (in order to justify that attitude). So you punish that person accordingly: For posting useless shit. You don't go and restrict everyone's ability to bring up old threads if needed. (Unless you're an authoritarian dictator. "Punish all for the actions of one" is a great method of repression.) Try something progressive instead: Suggest that mods lock topics if the OP's conditions have been met. (For example, if the OP asks how to do something and is answered, the thread is locked.) This would cause future topics to be free of unnecessary necroposts!

I'm really more annoyed of the surge of people whining about impersonators and VKers. It's kind of redundant.

8

Cutstuff Discussion and Feedback / Apologize for making me think Ashley returned, and we're goo

« on: February 12, 2013, 06:30:29 AM »

I have absolutely no idea who you are. (I also don't know who I am either, so we're in the same boat.) But I can share one thing with you, though. Words and ideas, unlike actions, are not necessarily permanent - and so I'm always willing to accept a change if you're willing to prove you've gone through with it. If you've killed a man or stolen his ass, you can't undo that transgression. But if you said some misguided or ill remarks, so you can certainly go back on those with no cost - and I encourage you to! After all, you've had seven months, which is plenty of time to think about how you view other people.

Besides. There are others running around with terrible grievances around that they've yet to apologize. No one's yet to apologize for maliciously impersonating admins, trying to get them hacked, running around flashing their teats everywhere, or spreading furry culture. (You know who you are!) Some simple misgivings of wordplay are palpable by comparison. In fact, I wouldn't really mind the community having an apology thread like this. It's good to own up to one's mistakes, and to own up to my word, I'll do it to.

Dear CutStuff,

(click to show/hide)

I apologize for not being enough of an elitist asshole.

In the normal beaches of an open sandbox, one person starts building his own castle and others join into the mix, adding onto it. But only as long as they can before the tidal wave comes and knocks it down, forcing them to refortify. If it didn't, you'd have a bunch of old, moldy, and dirty sand that's become overburdened by too many people adding onto it, becoming a product of inbreeding and bastardization of its original shape. Without a careful outside criticism of your claims (or anyone's), it's easy to let it fall into the norm. I have always made it my goal not to let this happen, but I've gone soft lately and now the community (and its projects) are in a horrible state of overgrowth. I'm still somewhat busy compared to what I was before, but I hope now I can offer enough push back to make you guys want to move in the right direction. After all, you guys shouldn't take shit from anyone - especially not from me!

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Cutstuff Discussion and Feedback / Fortunately, Bikdark is now the same person as Tengu.

« on: February 12, 2013, 06:09:23 AM »

I loled always when bikdark/stylin trololo do the mad guy, he is not really a "fa*" like some guys can say, i think, he want to be a strong guy cause he likes really this interesting game too, it's a good point I think.

What was that, Stonefunk?

He's talking about the time that you and bikdark were the same person (hence the backslash). Don't you remember? It was ages ago. You were both unfadeds, so it's a logical conclusion. (After all, "clan" is just short-hand for collective unconscious. We can only assume you existed as part of a single entity until its dissolution.) He's not great with English, but I can assure you he's sticking his nuts out for you/Bik, dawg. It's rare for users around here to defend Bikdark/you.

Unless you/Bikdark really are homosexual, in which case I apologize. It would be a terrible to thing to impose heterosexuality on you/him.

The atmosphere is really better than when i played Counter strike in french servers. Guys, you are awesome, i know that i will have always a lot of fun with you !

So much modes came and come always. It's really good for everybody, im alway impressed when i see some new modes and all ! My favorite is TLMS classes, so much fun with the old celebi server too (MR X map wtf for the last survivors xD ).

I never played a so cool doom like online with a so cool community! We want succeed with passion, we want make this megaman game awesome with passion.

Those two things are directly related, you know! The classes mod inherently drives out competition by its nature. A few animals/pokemon/etc. can tailor it to their own interests, so they have an inherent advantage over weaker or newer players and their skill position is upheld at minimal effort. The rest of the community who bothers with this mod isn't interested in competition, so they're freely and willingly accepting of such changes. After all, they're just being strung along for the ride! The skill gap that separates (and frustrates) a great deal of counterstrike players is erased once skill becomes irrelevant in favor of exploitative tactics ("strategy", if you will). Throw in a bunch of oversized, non-optimal maps and now the whole game's been warped into a contortion of the community! There's no reason for any dissatisfaction at all!

Well, I do wonder where some of those competitive players / creative modders went...

10

The WWW board / I just wish /mu had something more interesting to show!

« on: February 12, 2013, 05:37:53 AM »

Also, what kind of music should i listen to? I dont really mind the genre as long as it isnt country and im getting tired of electronic, so yeah.

You could look at Mendez's post, and join the army of pitchforkers. You could listen to a bunch of white dudes mumble incessantly over a guitar drone, and then talk with others about how sophisticated you are for being able to appreciate something so banal. (And maybe enjoy, too, if you convince yourself) MBV released a new album of that sort which is critically acclaimed - it's a great start to that sort of drawl. Hip Hop's at least got some sort of meaningful attitude behind it, for as long as you're willing to listen to those people's problems.

If you're bored of electronic, the best thing to do is really just to find a harder sound. It's easy to get bored if you've been exposed to nothing but pop-infused nonsense.

(click to show/hide)

Suppose it doesn't fancy you right away, you'll really have to explore as many different things as you can. I have issues with the lists like the one Mendez has posted. Why would anyone waste that much time listening to all that old music simply so they can claim to be entry level into a group's narrow tastes? Just looking at the "metal" column; I don't see any female, gothic, symphonic, or power metal in there at all. But is it really that hard to listen to a track by Nightwish? Or WT? Not at all, but you won't find anything near that sound - nothing comes close in /mu's thirty albums! And that's only a fraction of the list. When I see these sorts of lists I doubt anyone at the "entry level" has bothered to listen to it all, let alone half of it. Because there's no reason to. Nothing to gain, very little explored in these lists.

(That's not to say all in these lists are bad by any means. Surely some good albums can be found, but if you have to cherry-pick such a massive list, it kind of defeats the purpose to begin with.)

11

Forum Games / Unassuming it wasn't changed, it's an ice fairy. Nein.

« on: February 11, 2013, 08:32:11 AM »

8/10

Decent, it's stock art (or a possible edit of stock art) so nothing terribly special, but still looks nice. Solid.

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Anything Goes / It's UK Dubstep, Duora. That's all you need to know.

« on: February 11, 2013, 08:28:21 AM »

Pretty much anyone who knows of my affection for this character also knows that it isn't particularly my character to begin with. No, she belongs to some Japanese artist who hides under the name of Zakki or something, and that's all I'm going to tell you because a good two-thirds of her art are... well, for lack of a better word, inappropriate. Remember my old avatar? That's just the tip of the iceberg, mate.

It's not hiding; it's a nickname. Her real name is Zakiko (???). You can't just say everyone named Alex or Ken is "hiding" their real names! The word you're looking for would be "Questionable", in which a large number of her images fall. (Of course, if a pair of breasts unnerve you, you might wait to put off browsing art until you're older, when you can develop the ability to appreciate it. Alternatively, when you have maturity greater than an average 12 year old's.)

I thought she looked nice though, so I used her image as my avatar both on Cutstuff and on Steam.

I don't know what caused it. Maybe it's her appearance, maybe it's the potential for a unique storyline, maybe it's just because I'm downright strange. At any rate, eventually I began to take a personal interest in her. I gave her personality quirks. I gave her a name. I collected a holy truckload of art (which was actually sort of difficult; I didn't know who the artist was until Blaze McPhearson lent a hand, so I didn't have much material before then). I don't remember exactly how it happened, but Lady Blues was now a "thing".

Ignoring the obvious self-identification explanation, I have a hunch that the majority of Rockman fanart you've encountered has been drawn or sprited by Americans, originating from the massive shithole known as DeviantArt (of which multiple people here profess membership to as well). Zakiko is a professional mangaka (illustrator); which means that even her in personal sketches and such there's a level of professionalism and experience in anime styling to be had, common in many other Pixiv / booru artists that's non-existant in the crude, cartoon drawings of the West.

So eventually I found myself looking for a saxophone playing Proto Man's iconic whistle. Don't ask. I found some great piano renditions, a few versions on flute, and even a violin duo, but trying to directly search for a saxophone wasn't turning up any results. I decide to change up my wording a few times and try different search engines, video hosts, and websites, until I finally find the jazzy melody I was looking for... and more. Oh, so very much more.

The saxophone is a grotesque invention and a bastard instrument by design. Focusing on it will seldom, if ever yield anything of quality.

This song, by OverClocked Remixers starla and injury, is absolutely beautiful. It's also the reason I'm even posting here. To be completely honest, once I found the song I wanted to post it on Cutstuff, but I had no idea where to put it. Yeah, it's a video game song, but it's not really from a video game, so it probably wouldn't go in Video Game Songs You Love. Then again, it's a video game song, so would it go in the general Music Thread? After a couple minutes trying to decide I just sort of went "eh fuck it" and went to throw it up on Spamthread. Trying to give a background of how I found it, I ended up typing nearly the entire background of Lady Blues... and, well, I don't even know anymore.

You'll also notice it contains relatively little saxophone beyond the beginning (which I balked at), since the saxophone is typically an ugly duckling as far as instruments go. (The rest of it was much more pleasant. Yes, despite my loathing of the saxophone, I do enjoy jazz!

There's two ways to address that issue. The easy way is to just say "how much does it sound like the original" or "does it sound like game music"- since this is a blatant reinterpretation of the original, I'd put it in a game music thread. More creative arranges or remixes (which work to mask or disguise the original work) are fair game for any music thread, however. It's in this domain, however, that OCR commonly fails at creative arranges (or they did in the past; I don't really bother with the site at this point). Usually inspired to be more creative, remixes commonly fall apart as they have no compositional value. Since this piece sticks very close to the original work, it doesn't suffer that pitfall and lets the re-imagined sounds show properly. While technically an arrange this example is overall much closer to an orchestration (a basic re-instrumentation / voicing change) since the original composition is left mostly intact. So the long version is: Orchestrations are 'game music', arranges are generally less so. See the two arranges of Stickerbrush Symphony below for examples.

(click to show/hide)

Orchestration:

Arrange:

The first is identical to the composition but sounds "remastered"; it has better quality instruments than the original platform. The latter retains the original melody but also incorporates in it new ways, as well as original material not present in the original. In this case the arrange actually beats out the competition, as the orchestration has a few wonky notes in the bass. (Such a shame, really.) Of course, it also helps that they had Joshua Morse on this arrange - a notable solid arranger who also has done Mega Man tunes. (RGMR is a much more iconic Mega Man tune arranger, ironically enough.) If you want to see a really bad arrange, that DKC2 album has a quite a few of them - you'll find some absolute garbage just as soon as 2-18 on the tracklist.

Lady Blues.

Smashing!

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The WWW board / Picked a mostly clean track to be safe.

« on: February 03, 2013, 07:50:17 AM »

You'd think trance and metal stay relatively separate (barring 'same artist' pages), but they meet up surprisingly well with Blood Stain Child.

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Anything Goes / Length =/= significance.

« on: January 22, 2013, 03:14:50 AM »

I. Thou shalt not necrobump topics.

Discussions on this forum (outside of Forum Games) are not purged. If the admins wanted to prevent posts to old topics, it would be easy: lock or purge them. They do not, because threads always warrant discussion regardless of age. If someone needs a question answered but can't find it in a current thread, it is appropriate for him to respond. His only other option is making a new thread, which would be redundant and a form of clutter. Irrelevant posts (spam) is already discouraged as it is.

II. Thou shalt not post "lol" or "QFT".

lol

Banning two words isn't going to stop people from making short, vapid posts. If you want people to make posts longer than one word, tell them to use multiple words. (Which is already stated in the rules.) Banning "lol" will just make everyone overly serious, and incapable of laughter.  

III. Thou shalt not post random bullshit.

None of the things you listed are 'random' since they all occur on a typical basis. What you're referring to is "conversations about the user's day", which, is exactly what the OP's thread asks for:

just for talking about your day, Plans, or something different.

Given that the thread has existed in such fashion without intervention from moderators, there is no harm in posting "slice of life" information. Refraining from posting such information would be off-topic.

IV. Thou shalt not become emotional and rage at thy opponent in an argument.

Logic can only be used against the similarly logical, which CutStuff cannot always claim to be. Logic cannot characterize, either: only machines speak purely in it. Given that rage is one way I make character assessments, I would prefer to continue seeing "rage" on the forums. Rage is fine; immaturity is not.

V. Thou shalt not make more than one post in a row.

Similar to the necropost complaint to the point of redundancy. Spam is already discouraged in the official rules. And as usual, if something needs to be said, it should be said.

VI. Thou shalt not self-censor.

Self-censoring serves an aesthetic purpose of making a post look "cleaner". If people didn't know what the censored word being said was, the censorship would be pointless. Instead, they can see the word indirectly. This allows the poster to use the word he desires but by cutting down a degree of crudeness. (Only negligible, since cursing is crude in general. But there's no reason to advocate uncensored posts, unless you're referring to pornographic or hentai images, which definitely should remain uncensored.)

VII. Thou shalt not overuse emotes.

It's a method of characterization, since it's impossible to display actual emotion in forum text. It's similar to ornamentation in music: The meaning is changed only slightly. And, as with other methods of posts, it should be always applied whenever appropriate. If my emotion were to suddenly shift every line break, an extra emoticon would be the only way to communicate that.  

VIII. Thou shalt use correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

the purpose of this forum is for communication, right?
the method of typing is one such way of showing that.
if the person typing is able to communicate effectively, i think
his point can get across.

X. Thou shalt avoid using size tags as often as possible.

I frequently employ size tags to shrink quotes, as I have above. Usually it's more effective with larger quotes. This allows me to refer an above post (which has already been read) but save space simultaneously. Like emoticons, size can also be used in text as a form of characterization.

X. Thou shalt avoid moving the thread in a direction it was not originally intended to go.

This is an inevitable subject of human conversation. Regardless, it seems your issue is more with "people disliking thread creators" and not actual off-topic discussion in threads. Which is already discouraged in the official rules.

Ugh, despite Myroc's really good tutorial that everyone should go read, people are still posting horribly. Therefore, listen to these commandments, my child, and thou shalt find thyself enlightened.

"Enlightened" usually refers to a broader understanding. Since you are insisting on constricting the manner of users' posting, I would refer to listeners of this set of commandments as "decadent".

No one of significance cares about your personal peeves. Your entire thread is as pointless as the posts it describes.

15

Anything Goes / So good. Minus the "LoL" icon, but it's only a minor blemish

« on: January 10, 2013, 04:33:02 AM »

I'm a Windows 8 nooblord now

(click to show/hide)

I think I actually like you now!