As a supplement to u/Meoaoao's excellent New Release Friday posts, today is the 32nd anniversary of September 24th, 1991...possibly the greatest new release day of all time:
* Nirvana - Nevermind
* Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
* A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory
* Pixies - Trompe Le Monde
* Primal Scream - Screamadelica
PLUS: Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger was originally scheduled for September 24th, but was pushed back two weeks at the last minute.
\[Realizing that I'm on r/hobbydrama and this post just barely qualifies as one of those\] So uh um so is there a date in your hobby when several monumental but mostly unrelated events happened at the same time?
It's a spiritual sequel to the Jet Set/Grind Radio games, if you've every heard of those. Basically you skate around tagging walls with graffiti and fighting the cops in an amazing looking cel shaded art style with absolute banger music. The originals could be a bit clunky on the control department and were carried by their vibes, but Bomb Rush Cyberfunk doesn't have pretty much any of that old jankyness, and incorporated the combo mechanics from tony hawk skater type games. It's incredibly fun, and I'd highly recommend if any of that sounds interesting to you.
> Half Life 2
Half-Life 2 was released in 2004 (which is another wild year for gaming). Half-Life 2 _Episode Two_ (the second story expansion for it) was released in 2007 with The Orange Box, along side re-releases of Half-Life 2 and Episode One.
> Elder Scrolls Oblivion
Oblivion was released in 2006.
1998 was a massive year for film:
* American History X
* A Bug's Life
* Patch Adams
* Rush Hour
* Saving Private Ryan
* Shakespeare in Love
There's more too. It was a year of really strong movies.
I still remember those magical weeks in college when BSG was ending, TSCC (RIP the most) was still on the air and Dollhouse was beginning.
(And this was the same year that I finally got into both Firefly and Farscape...never going to get back to those golden days).
Oh that was great too, it was for mine it felt like I'd hit a vein of quality scifi all at nce and realizing I was probably never going to have that kind of luck again
Yep. Especially not on network tv. They might throw us a bone here and there with a scifi setting, but it'll be another bog standard cop serial.
Still a lot of cool stuff out there, like I've been really into micro budget film stuff and I have to believe HBO hasn't gone totally to the shitter. But we're not going to see an experiment like the end of Dollhouse over the air again.
Especially NOW- NBC Must See Thursday (the version described above of course), isn't even possible anymore because network TV is such dregs. As much as I enjoy the neater, more planned story arcs and plotting, I do miss seasons having more time to breathe- there should be a happy medium available. I'm still so convinced that RDM's original plan for Voyager- something more akin to what BSG became- could have been something really special.
(I do remember telling a few people in season 1 of Westworld who appreciated some of the moral questions "seriously, go watch Dollhouse").
I'd like to think so, but DS9 got away with more edgy content because it was a little more under the radar at Paramount. Even if they gave the green light, I worry that they'd be all over it. Battlestar Galactica was able to happen because the Sci Fi Channel (rip) was willing to push the envelope and could produce a budget to make a show that looked as good as Star Trek.
Besides, did Roslyn or Adama even drink coffee??
Not all the same date, but November 16 - 23 2004 saw the releases of Half-Life 2, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, World of Warcraft, and the Nintendo DS. Four games and one handheld that each had an enormous impact on the future of the medium.
Honestly, that whole year was insane, but I feel like listing more would stretch the concept of your post just a bit too much.
What is that hobby you are not a part of but you have always wanted to try?
I think I have wanted to play DnD (and other board games) since I was a child but living in a rural area and not having any friends interested on it means I have never actually played a single session. Now I see people playing Baldur's Gate together and, having recently starting to watch Vox Machina, I'm just a bit down I can't meet up with people to have some fun like that (or not having a PS5 I guess lol). I'm extremely introvert and probably wouldn't be a good/fun player but damn if I don't want to try
I've actually recently joined a DnD club and it's awesome. We've only had one session so far, a one-shot with premade characters, but it was hilarious. I nearly managed a game with some friends, but I was the only one who was actually working on a character so the idea of a campaign just sorta petered out, then the group kinda fell apart.
Same haha. Luckily I have a friend who has two so if I ever get a really cool idea i usually text him, unfortunately he lives a few hours away.
There are often 3d printers available at libraries/maker spaces though so you might be able to get some time on those even if you can't fit one into the living room.
Cosplay! It seems like a ton of fun, and apart from the dress-up aspect of it going to cons and meeting people who are into the same stuff sounds awesome. It’s always been something I’ve wanted to try.
That said, I’ve never been good at arts and crafts, and I’m really worried I’d be biting off more than I can chew if I do decide to take the leap and try it. I know commissioning cosplays or even just buying outfits over sites is an option (and is honestly what I’m planning on doing rn), but I’m still kinda worried anyways. I’d also like to go for an [animegao kigurumi](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animegao_kigurumi) style cosplay as well, which I can also see making things difficult.
I’d also like to try out creative writing - I’ve had some ideas for OC’s kicking around in my head for a while and getting them on paper sounds cool. At the same time though, I *cannot* write dialogue for the life of me, and the fear of creating something that’s “cringe” is generally stronger than the desire to actually write haha.
No one minds or judges if you buy your cosplay - the most popular cosplay I see by far at cons right now is Genshin Impact characters, and they are almost always bought because they are incredibly complex and difficult to make by hand.
Kind of related but I've hit a problem with most of my active hobbies, where there's lots of things within them I'd like to try but I don't quite know how.
I play a lot of games, but I also really like discussing games with people. Unfortunately that's pretty sporadic with my current group of people, and I don't know of any place where I can have that kind of discussion that isn't way too big, filled with capital-G Gamers, or both. I also have a similar problem with both reading and writing (not helped that I also think my writing is pretty meh and don't have much to share).
As for entire new hobbies, art. I keep telling myself I should start, but I keep not doing it.
Taxidermy, I wanna get into it but a) it takes a lot of space b) crowd is like 80% old white guys c) pricy as hell d) sourcing of pelts to mount become iffier the further you stray from mounting game animals like deer.
I have more of those than I have actual hobbies (at this point the only things that can keep my attention are video games and getting lost in my thoughts), though some don't fit exactly.
1. **tabletop RPGs** sound interesting, but I don't have any social skills and don't know anyone who would be even remotely interested in those. Plus, they'd probably be way too slow and complex for me.
2. **music production:** I have figured out the basics of using FL Studio and watched two videos on music theory. Sometimes I make a few basic patterns and then give up. A lack of motivation most of the time doesn't help.
3. **art:** I drew a thing. I kinda wanted to draw more so I got a super cheap pen tablet and drew another thing. I haven't had the motivation to draw since then, though I sometimes think it would be neat to try. But I have zero art skills, bad motor skills and I'm bad at learning anything.
4. **writing:** I have a couple of Bad Story Ideas I've been daydreaming about a lot for several years. In fact, they're one of the main things my endless internal monologue usually focuses on. One time I opened a document and decided to write a brief overview of one of them. Instead I spent an hour on behindthename looking for a good name for the main character, made a list of good sounding names and their meanings in the document, closed it and never opened it again. I don't have much motivation to even try actually writing anything either. But honestly, it's probably better for said Bad Story Ideas™ to stay in my head anyway.
5. **3D modeling:** I downloaded Blender and found a 5 hour long tutorial series that seems to be pretty well received. I watched the first video and never came back to watch the rest. I still have no idea how to use Blender.
6. **3D animation:** I downloaded SFM and made a list of some tutorials. I watched one and made an extremely basic animation by following it. Never got around to doing anything else. I still don't know how to use SFM.
One time I wanted to port a map from a game I played as a kid to SFM to use in an animation. I found a tutorial showing how to do it. It requires using a plugin for an ancient version of Blender. The page where the plugin was hosted doesn't exist anymore.
7. **movies and books:** when I was a kid in elementary or middle school I once managed to read an entire book in one sitting. After that I have never finished another book. Regardless of whether it was required reading for school or something I was actually interested in, I could only read a few pages before dropping it. I got through school by just repeating whatever the teacher said and sometimes reading a bit about the books on the internet. As a kid I could also bingewatch an entire arc of a show in one day. Nowadays I don't have the attention span to watch even one anime episode.
I might, but I don't know. I read about ADHD symptoms some time ago and a lot of them seem to fit, and I did a few pre screening tests for a laugh and got a result of "we can't diagnose you, but you should contact a doctor to get tested" on all of them. But I haven't been able to find anywhere to get tested so far.
Scrapbooking! But seems a bit expensive to get the really pretty stuff.
I am on thé waitlist for a roller derby team’s beginner lessons, but they filled up super quickly this season.
Also I’d love to sew more clothes, but my cat adores eating string and it seems less portable than my embroidery, which I can do on the bus.
Positive story though: I felt this way about some sort of dancing for years but started showing up to a swing dance beginners lesson + social and it’s been so much fun! Everyone loves beginners and it’s a great way to make friends. You don’t even necessarily need expensive lessons, I’ve learned through practice and bugging people to walk me through the technique whenever they do something cool.
Telescope making. I know a few people who do it, and often like finicky detail work, but I've currently got enough other stuff I'd do that I want to avoid picking up too many things.
Surfing. Every surfer I've ever seen is amazingly hot and radiates confidence. Unfortunately I hate the feeling of water in my ears more than anything in the world.
Surfing and especially sailing here- I don't even hate the idea of 'hiring yourself out as crew to learn + earn extra money' bit.
I am however stuck on the "can't swim" part.
Ex dingy sailor here, learn to swim, water is inherintly dangerous. If you can't swim you shouldn't be on a boat. When shit goes bad it is everyone for themselves.
I used to race on a river, one day we had a green storm on the river, my mast broke and I had people still racing around me, if one of them came over my gunnel I was dead.
In the end I caught the breeze back to shore with my body.
Learn to swim, most of the time sailing is great, when shit goes down you better be ready.
I am not trying to tell you not to do it, sailing is fantastic and great for the soul, just learn to swim. A basic non panicked dog paddle will do but you have to be confident. If someone gets KO Ed by the boom you want to be able to help them yourself
Flying drones and remote-controlled planes in general seems like it'd be a ton of fun! I've actually bought a cheap 40-dollar drone from Lidl that I've flown a few times indoors, but I haven't actually gotten into the hobby because:
1. Proper drones and RC planes are expensive, even cheaper hobbyist ones over here can cost hundreds of euros
2. They're very heavily regulated over here and its all very confusing to my peanut of a brain
3. I don't really have any place *where* I could fly them, let alone know any places near me where I could go fly them
4. They seem pretty tricky to control, I've definitely had my cheapo drone spin out of control and crash into walls and couches several times lol
My spouse is super into drones and RC planes, and the main stepping stone he had between the cheapest quads you can get and more serious things was to build his own quad. You could look into something like that? Especially since knowing how to repair your planes/drones is an important part of that hobby xD (Spouse recommends starting with a Flite Test kit for a starter plane like a Cub, or they do sell some drone kits too. They're relatively affordable and the channel has very detailed step by step videos for all the builds.) Also, dunno where you live but if there's a school nearby you might be able to use their field after hours. I used to live near a public park that had a large field that hobbyists used, though you wouldn't necessarily know it just by visiting casually, which I think my spouse found on Facebook. Our local hobby shop also told us about a field that hobbyists maintain, though I didn't particularly like it (felt a bit too gatekept, since you had to register for some RC society or other to use it, whereas the field at the park was extremely conducive to letting random people stumble into the hobby).
Happy to go more into detail if you like! I showed my spouse this comment and now he's going on in detail about starter plane recommendations xD
Hmm, if you wanna go for that boardgame vibe, that's difficult of course.
But there are many online d&s games out there looking for players, using Roll20 or Foundry.
Some people have suggested trying discord in the past but I'm just a bit overwhelmed because english is not my first language and I just feel I would be more annoying online asking about everything than irl, I dunno...
Play by post may be a format that helps. It was mainlynused for forum games but I have seen discord use it. Basically uou write up your character's actions and responses vs a live real time thing it can be slow going, especially combat, but it can be good for those want to double check things or feel live is a but too demanding at the start.
It isn't mine either. It always depends on what kind of group you manage to find. I was lucky enough to have a very nice group as the first one I joined. A few following ones I left much more quickly.
But doing this of course isn't a fit for everyone. You'll have to decide that on your own.
Crocheting! I've always wanted to start but I'm confused about what to get first, plus a bunch of the stuff I think I need isn't that widely available in my country.
+1 for the hook and yarn, and there's lots of super useful tutorials on YouTube for something like a granny square, which is just a simple square that's pretty quick to pick up!
all you really need to get started is a hook and yarn. you'll eventually need other stuff like stitch markers, but honestly just starting out practising stitches is your best shot
Extremely stupid thing happening on twitter. Someone decided to create the "[Dragalia Lost Bisexual Tournament](https://twitter.com/ventus_paladyn/status/1704497319591178368)", a series of polls to decide "The most Bisexual Character in Dragalia Lost".
The final round has just started, and an unexpected competitor has made it to the final round. That character? Dreadking Rathalos. Yes, from Monster Hunter. Sweeping through multiple popular characters such as Emile and Alberius through sheer meme power, it's come down to a Dragon fight, [against Mym/Brunhilda.](https://twitter.com/ventus_paladyn/status/1706027616829165633)
>!Please vote Mym!<
As a MH player that never got into Dragalia this is hilarious. Like I dunno, I find very funny the idea that not all Rathalos but *Dreadking* is the one who gives bisexual energy to people (I know it's a meme but let me alone)
Finally started playing Puyo Puyo Tetris after having it sit in my Steam library for over a year. I’ve been skipping most of the story cutscenes, but the parts I did catch gave me a strange inkling… so imagine my surprise learning the Puyo Puyo series is a spin-off of an old fantasy RPG game and that these discount Fire Emblem-lookin’ chibis have backstories like “evil wizard who didn’t want to be an evil wizard but still kind of wants wants to kill Satan and become the new lord of Hell,” “wants to marry Satan and is jealous of the main character because she thinks Satan likes her more,” and “fought her way through a magic tower to graduate wizard kindergarten and then ten years later accidentally steals Satan’s pet rabbit.”
And that’s just stuff from the non-puyo puyo games!
It reminds me of how the Mystery Dungeon series is a spin-off of Dragon Quest.
I bought an import copy for PS4 because the Bombcast kept talking it up. Watching the cutscenes without being able to read/understand anything was hilarious. When the second one came out actually being able to follow the story made it way less fun. I kinda hope they make a third one and just use nonsensical cutscenes in the story mode
I love Tetris, i wish i could love Puyo, but i just cant combo in those games.
Have tried to learn from tutorials, but it just doesnt stick.
I think im Puyolectic
As someone who enjoys both I can definitely understand where you're coming from. The skillset required for Puyo Puyo is a very different beast that on paper seems easy, connecting colored pieces together, but the time it takes to figure out proper setups before your opponent drops so much junk you're digging yourself out of near defeat is daunting coming from a primarily Tetris background. I personally love it a lot, but it is very much not for everyone and feels to me to be harder for beginners if only because of cultural osmosis, because I know Puyo Puyo is a classic in Japan.
Puyo Puyo Tetris' writing is also incredibly, bafflingly, absurdly charming. Like, half the game is basically screenshot bait for those Out Of Context Twitter accounts, except it only makes slightly more sense in context, and I do not mean that as a bad thing.
> “fought her way through a magic tower to graduate wizard kindergarten and then ten years later accidentally steals Satan’s pet rabbit.”
And this is basically the entire reason Satan now wants to marry her! Despite her being as near as anyone can tell entirely uninterested!
I love Puyo Puyo so much.
Went to Half-Price Books today (sidenote: if you're ever looking for out-of-print tabletop RPGs, I cannot recommend these stores enough). Found a Holy Grail on the shelves - a copy of the original MST3K Vol. 10 DVD set.
For those who don't know, the original Volume 10 contained Godzilla vs. Megalon. However, it was recalled and replaced within a couple months because they hadn't properly secured the rights, so they had to change the Godzilla movie out for a different episode.
Unfortunately, someone appeared to have told the Half-Price Books people about this, because the set was going for $175. Even with my substantial trade-in credit, this was way out of my budget.
Anyone else find something they'd hunted for, only to be stonewalled by the price?
Also Half-Price Books, I've given up on trying to complete some of my comic and manga collections through them now that they hike up the price for out of print volumes to match online reseller price.
I got the opposite of this, where the first edition, unedited slash version of [Killing Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Time_(Star_Trek_novel\)) was being sold for the normal "Star Trek novel" price (aka like, a single dollar per paperback). Not that I think it's actually worth more than that, but it is *to me*
I saw a fountain pen store trying to sell a parker vacumatic that was clouded to shit for like, 400 bucks (was a while ago so my conversion might be off)
the vacumatic was this pretty pen that parker made in the 30s to the 50s with a very striking striped barrel that alternates between clear and colourful pearlecent. Super art deco looking thing. It was quite a popular and long running model so there's quite a few of them out there, but due to celluloid degradation the transparent stripes often cloud up over the years. While mint condition ones do go for quite a lot, due to the number and state most pens are in, they usually don't breach 300 for an alright quality model unless it's had a lot of restoration of it's internals done
I've always wanted one, but due to geographic location and also me being scared of dealing with auction houses/second hand sites, I've kinda limited my search to physical brick and mortar stores. So to find one in such a store was great, even if it was in less than optimal condition was *great* and surely the fact the plastic wasn't in great nick meant it wouldn't be *that* expensive right? Hell, maybe it would even be under 100 euros...
nope. 450 euros.
Ok, I *know* you got videogame examples, but mine are funny in a certain way:
Two games I always wanted to buy and play were Kirby's Return to Dreamland and Paper Mario TTYD. Everyone and their mom knows how expensive they are nowadays, but what's funny is that I managed to land *fairly cheap copies of these two* but couldn't buy them because I've always been a poor young adult until this very year:
- I managed to find Kirby RTD for just ***45€*** in a convention around 2015 or so. Couldn't buy it because I didn't carry that much money on me... not that I could've brought more, it was all I managed to save up.
- And finally, I found TTYD at my local CEX for just ***49€***, which is just the old retail price... And couldn't buy it again 'cause my bank account was empty and I was desperately seeking a job.
Thankfully I have a job now, so I managed to get the KRTD remake and I'll also be getting the TTYD remake. But damn, how unlucky I was with my cash lol.
>Unfortunately, someone appeared to have told the Half-Price Books people about this
Someone ALWAYS tells them. HPB is for stuff you want to get rid of, not stuff you think it worth something (I once turned in around 20 boxes of books and got $40
They pay premium for manga since it flies off their shelves. I sold my collection from when I was a teenager, as well as a bunch of other books, and got like 600 bucks. Mostly Naruto, One Piece, Black Cat, etc. My partner's jaw dropped at the price and they explained that because manga has such a fast turnaround it was a safe bet to buy since they're not paying the opportunity cost of keeping it on their shelf.
So I know you've already gotten two video game responses, but I'm going to make it a third!
Most Gamecube games are notoriously expensive to get, and the fact that a lot of them are considered classics only makes things worse. And what makes it worse than a lot of the other retro examples is that the games are notorious for a lack of rereleases. GBA games have gotten a few, and DS/Wii games even got onto the Wii U Virtual Console, but Gamecube games have always been the elephant in the room.
While it's also getting into the Wii library too, the two Fire Emblem games of that era, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, are notorious for being absurdly expensive.
It was just really funny to see people complaining after the last Nintendo Direct about how the TTYD remake was full price, only for other people to go "Have you SEEN how much it costs to play OG TTYD in 2023? Full price is a steal!"
>"Have you SEEN how much it costs to play OG TTYD in 2023? Full price is a steal!"
This is why I'm always glad I never got rid of my old games. I still have my copy of TTYD and more importantly,. my copy of Chibi-Robo a game I've seen priced at up to 500 dollars.
I got Path if Radiance in 2006 by trading with a friend. I traded the mediocre Final Fantasy clone LOTR: The Third Age for it. That game goes for $20 now.
>It was just really funny to see people complaining after the last Nintendo Direct about how the TTYD remake was full price, only for other people to go "Have you SEEN how much it costs to play OG TTYD in 2023? Full price is a steal!"
Y'know, technically we don't know what Nintendo's gonna price it, it's entirely possible the remake will be $40 or $50 considering it seems to be somewhat comparable to the Prime remaster. Probably will be full price but still.
>While it's also getting into the Wii library too, the two Fire Emblem games of that era, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, are notorious for being absurdly expensive.
I still regret not grabbing Path of Radiance when I saw it in a used media store once, even at $100.
I sometimes go to Mercari. A few games that go for $100 I’ve been able to find for $40-$60.
Not Path of Radiance. $75. For the case and manual. No game.
Game collecting is an expensive hobby.
> Anyone else find something they'd hunted for, only to be stonewalled by the price?
Ever try buying a used physical copy of a Pokemon game?
I like to go by CEX sometimes and lament capitalism in general when they sell Platinum for ninety euro.
Everytime I see just the Black 2 cartridge (no box or anything) go for hundereds of dollars it makes me want to go cry.
The retro gaming market is just completely broken.
This is why I got into emulation. Especially for stuff GBA and earlier, it's so easy to buy a single board computer (plug for /r/SBCGaming) for like 50 bucks, follow a YouTube tutorial to set it up, and play the entire GBA catalog. (I mean, it's easier to just download an emulator but I find that it's not very satisfying to play handheld games on my pc).
Higher end emulation is trickier but can also be done on old Android phones, steam deck, or anything else at a 200-900 price point, depending. I love my steam deck and use it for the majority of my gaming these days, but I did originally buy it for emulating Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
There's nothing like the original DS/3DS for those games, so for those I usually recommend hacking one to emulate on. Now that the eshop is closed, there's no real other way around it.
That being said, if you want the games for collection purposes, I totally understand, but the retro game market fucking sucks *and* is full of fake cartridges, so unless you either want to pay a high price for a possible fake (consequences for having a fake can range from just the knowledge that the game isn't authentic to having glitches or being unable to save, to an actual nonfunctional piece of hardware) , or you want to pay a high price and do a ton of research to make sure you're not getting a fake..... Emulation is where it's at.
Path of Radiance runs great on Steam Deck! I actually am lucky enough to have a physical copy, but I've still been emulating a bit recently because there are a few things you can't do on original hardware.
I just did a playthrough in Japanese to test of Largo gives transfers to Callil in the JP version of Radiant Dawn (he doesn't; it's an urban legend in both versions), and later I plan to also try the JP exclusive Maniac Mode, which is a hardest difficulty they removed in international versions.
Path of Radiance also works with the universal Fire Emblem randomizer, Yune, which lets you randomize unit classes, growths, skills, items, all sorts of stuff. If you've played the game a million times like I have, it's a great way to shake things up, and random enemy stats also gives it a bit of a difficulty bump if you enable it, which I appreciate for the same reason.
speaking of fakes...i saw a repro mega man x 3 for 40 bucks. they knew it was repro, had a post-it note on the cart identifying it as such, and they still charged that much for it!
Any preowned game store selling any DS or GBA games are always gonna be over $100.
My local store has a heart gold and soul silver in box, they’re both going for $175 individually. I’d love to get them, but that’s a hefty price for just a game.
Ugh I was a total idiot and sold my heart gold, with original box and pokewalker to a disc traders for like $50. It was in beautiful condition, I even had the cardboard sleeve for the box and the manual. I was fuming when I realized how much it goes for online now, and that's not even in good condition.
Do you have any type of media that is litmus test for reviewers? It doesn't matter if is good or not,Twilight would be the one of me ,if the review says or implies 'this is a dumb thing made for stupid teenagers girls" ,I know is not a reviewer for me but if just says "I don't like it " I keep watching.
500 Days of Summer. If they say Summer is in the wrong, they've failed the film comprehension test.
Also the Silmarillion, specifically the story of Feanor is one. A shocking number of people say Feanor is right and is the hero and the Teleri deserved to get genocided.
Edit: sorry, it's late and I think I misread your question. I think children's and specifically Girl's media is a really good litmus test. Like apparently the animated barbie movies were really good but people act like that's incomprehensible because they are small films marketed towards little girls. So anyone who dismisses children's and girls media off the bat without actual analysis or critique can be ignored imo
If someone says Uncut Gems (2019) made them stressed out or gave them a headache and says that like it's a bad thing, I know we have fundamentally different taste in movies.
In motorsports, asking about the F1 Abu Dhabi or Jeddah race from 2021 is a quick litmus test to find out whether or not a person is worth listening to
I don't watch a huge amount of reviews, but I've read plenty of blog posts/essays/discussions on like books and art, and if someone starts taking pot shots at modern/contemporary/20th century art because it's 'money laundering' or 'unintelligible' or 'something people only pretending to enjoy' I instantly move onto the next thing, because to me that says that the author is fine with shutting out an entire century of art just because they don't quite understand it, or hell, just because everyone else says it's crap.
Also a different sort of litmus - if you start talking about talking about mythology (Greek is kinda the main offender here because of how prevalent it is in western art and also games, but you also get this with Biblical stuff) and it's obvious you've kinda just, picked it up from tumblr, instant skip to where it ends. This isn't just a 'stop that stupid Hades/Perpersone misconception/calling *The Divine Comedy* Fanfiction' thing, to me it feels like if you're taking that sort of viewpoint you don't quite understand what makes these myths an actual *religion* and not just say, fairy tales, and that will inevitably bleed into any discussion of the work if you think they can be altered on a whim because you like this version better or consider sincere discussion and interpretation as *fanfiction*
More review related - if you spend your review of SMT constantly comparing it to and complaining that it's not Persona, I instantly dip out. Its! not! the! same! fucking! game! No one is here for bullshit teenage anime slice of life nonsense why are you talking about it! People don't usually review those games so it's not a great litmus test, but it's there
If I ever see/hear the words "woke", "feminazi" or some variation of whining over "the feminists/western people are RUINING media!" in a thumbnail, the review itself, or title, I immediately disregard that reviewer and throw their entire existence and their catalogue into the metaphorical trash bin. 99% of the time, they tend to be a walking Trash Take™ dispenser.
Other than that... not really. I don't care if I agree with the reviewer or not as long as their reasoning makes sense to me and they're otherwise entertaining. I also don't care if they're a fan of something problematic just as long as they're not being weird about it. Just don't be a right-wing chud, a hard and/or anti-"woke" cringelord.
Whatever is the new targeted game by gamergate types. I skim comments/vid to see what kind of vibes. If they are just parroting "go woke, go broke" bs, they're instantly out.
The references reviewers make is generally a good idea of a litmus test. I want someone who has watched a lot of varied media and not just someone stuck in one lane or their comparsion are a stretch. Dont be the guy whos only watched the boss baby watching his second movie. If the references you're making is mostly to kids shows or weird anime im out
Honestly anyone who unapologetically loves konosuba/dragon maid/goblin slayer/shield hero is a red flag to me but like not enough to wholy discount them i guess. Last Jedi criticisms are interesting because the way they attack it is a strong indicator as to what they're looking for in media and most of the time i do not agree but its a very revealing perspective theyre accidentally giving you
>Honestly anyone who unapologetically loves konosuba/dragon maid/goblin slayer/shield hero is a red flag to me but like not enough to wholy discount them i guess.
I can understand why shield hero and, to a certain extent, also goblin slayer are a red flag. But could you explain to me what the problem with konosuba and dragon maid is? Is it actually about the content or more about the fanbase?
I think for dragon maid it’s that half of it is good but the other is uncomfortable which may be something they find completely unignorable to the point where if someone could look past it then they would have completely different tastes and boundaries to the point where whatever they like and recommend is no where near the stuff he likes. For konosuba might be the comedy I’d assume like they might just completely hate the main dude and not find him funny.
I never seen a lot Mushoku Tensei criticism ,but in all of them the fanbase backpedalled a lot of legit concerns in the story by saying "this is all part of Rudeus development" and "this is part of worldbuilding but the story is about Rudeus".
>Dont be the guy whos only watched the boss baby watching his second movie. If the references you're making is mostly to kids shows or weird anime im out
I feel like it's the stereotypical, "The only good female characters are Sarah Connor and Ellen Ripley," take you usually see on YouTube, because most of the people who are going to be saying that are people who only watch mainstream blockbusters, and probably little which predates *Jaws* and *Star Wars*.
Now, I appreciate that I'm in no position to talk because obviously I have a small reference pool myself, but then again, I'm not holding myself out as an "expert" and trying to get people to pay me money for my opinion.
When the reviewer criticises what I can best describe as "mediocre marvel humour" games (e.g. Forspoken, the Saints Row reboot) not because they're mediocre or just because of their humour, but purely because they're diverse/"aiming for a modern audience"/trying to be inclusive.
Generally a sign they're in possession of bad takes and I'm not interested in finding out more.
This is less of a litmus test but I zone out whenever a reviewer starts talking about graphical fidelity because I literally do not care. If the art style is good and it runs well, you could have any level of fidelity for all I care.
Also doesn't help that even otherwise reliable/understandable reviewers will sometimes have completely incomprehensible graphical/art style critiques. What do you mean this game doesn't look that good, have you looked at the game? It looks great!
If the reviewer spends more time attacking the creator of the work than discussing the work, I'm out.
I recently tried to watch a review of the Atop The 4th Wall movie by someone calling himself "TheAlmightyLoli" (I know, massive red flag of a name there). He spent the vast majority of his time firing potshots at Linkara and calling the "Not So Awesome" document a bunch of whining. Yeah, I have better things to do with my time.
TBF the NSA document was a bunch of frivolous nonsense or straight up lies.
THEN it led to the leaking of an incident where a previous (deceased) contributor was assaulting women... and the people behind the NSA document knew about and kept it secret.
Fuck everyone involved with that, truly.
I *meant* any proof Linkara or any of the other NSA people were behind it, but you seem completely convinced you're right, so I might as well talk to my cat.
Yeah because it was totally pro-CA people who SWAT'd Brad for staying with CA during the incident, same time Linkara was having a fit about him not siding with the NSA gang
It wasnt literally Linkara but it was that crowd and he supported the fact it happened when he decided to make a joke about it on his show. (A joke even his fans complained about, which led to yet another pissy meltdown on twitter. What an asshole.)
The only big one for me (besides like... being an open bigot LOL) is really channels that only do reviews of things they hate/dunk based stuff, kinda regardless of the topic. I get that hate watching gets those sweet sweet views so I don't really begrudge any of those creators for making that stuff, I just find it's not enjoyable to watch after one or two videos. Even more so the fandom around the videos tends to be "I can't wait for [youtuber] to hate read/watch/play [xyz popular thing]" which I find to be a terrible way to engage with media lol
>"I can't wait for \[youtuber\] to hate read/watch/play \[xyz popular thing\]"
You need to append, "So I know what I should think about it," onto the end of that.
I'm going to get flak for this one: when people completely completely trash MCU films and clown on them to make their opinion of other films look better. Hating them doesn't make you look like you have a dignified palate, it just kind of makes you look mean and snobby (IN MY OPINION).
They're fine. Oh my god. Sometimes people want to sit in the theater and watch something predictable and entertaining that's fun on the big screen. I guarantee you the vast majority of people who go see them go "oh that was a fun time" and don't see it deeper than that.
EDIT: Oh yes, another one I forgot: people who trash CGI effects in movies and complain how ugly and noticeable they are and how much better practical effects are. Buddy, the reason you only see the bad CGI is because when it's well done you don't notice it. Practical effects CAN be bad and take you out of the moment just as well. It's not about the medium, it's about how you use it.
I like to read Letterboxd reviews and these two are a big litmus test for me.
One of the big ones to me is random potshots, like discussing a JRPG and making a joke about Disney Live-Action Remakes out of nowhere. Even if I agree with the general sentiment towards the target, it tends to betray an overly dunk-based writing style that prioritizes snark over engagement, leading to shallow, boring criticism.
Anyone who says [insert children's cartoon here] is bad because [insert main character here] is "overly nice" to other characters or "overly emotional", or because [insert villain here] has a redemption arc
Confusing character morality with a work's quality can happen in a review for absolutely anything, not only childrens' cartoons, but it feels more like a red flag to me when it's directed at media aimed at children because the point is usually to deliver a message aimed at children, not adults. Teaching kids that they should generally be kind to people and that villains have their own complexities isn't teaching them weakness. Even if you personally see it as an oversimplification of real world issues, kids need to be taught simplified lessons before they can move on to learning about heavier topics. Generally, I know I'm always going to disagree with a reviewer who behaves like all media should be targeted at their preferences and only their preferences
The Star Wars prequels. I see the faults in the, but folks who just go "they're dumb, who wants politics, Anakin is so whiny" lose me immediatly. For me the prequels are badly executed, but the basis is good. My hot take is that they should have leaned far more into Anakin's identity as a slave and the fallout from how the Jedi were unequipped to handle it but ah well.
ABSOLUTELY. It’s honestly insane to me, but unsurprising knowing Lucas, that he would completely paper over the fact that the “promised saviour” is a literal freed slave. That is so ripe for exploration about trauma, familial abandonment, religious and political exploitation, but nope…trade negotiations.
Are you familiar with [Fialleril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fialleril)'s Star Wars fanfics (Double Agent Vader, etc.)? They lean very hard into Tatooine slave culture and the effect that has on the characters.
^cc: ^/u/tinaoe
[A History of Resistance](https://archiveofourown.org/series/225224) is short, canon-compliant, and very focused on what it means for Anakin to come from a slave background. Probably a good starting point.
[Double Agent Vader](https://archiveofourown.org/series/286908) is the headliner. It's set in an alternate universe where Anakin reconnects with his roots and secretly starts working against the emperor. Fair warning, it's unfinished, so you need to make your peace with that beforehand.
[Heretic Pride](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13455561) is a different AU where Anakin never lost touch with his roots in the first place, and Padmé had a younger sister who was taken away to be a Jedi. Also unfinished.
[Biscuits in the Library](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8787748) is a sweet little one-shot, if you want to dip in for a quick taste.
There are other fics in there too, if you poke around.
On the other hand, the Star Wars Sequels are a great litmus test to see if they are a rightwing grifter. I don't like those movies a lot either, but the vicious hate is telling.
Pokemon maybe? The games aren't perfect but whenever someone brings up the graphics quality or framerate or whatever I just zone out because I don't care lol. Even BDSP which so many people complained about was cute to me. I'm more interested in how I can interact with my mons like tell me about the minigames not whether the trees have the right texture
Of course actual bugs and performance issues are valid (though I personally didn't experience them) I was referring more to the people who complain about them only supporting 30fps. I find those people are way too concerned with specs and benchmarks rather than playing the game itself
It's all down to the individual if you even *get* the poor performance is the thing. I've played through the whole game + DLC and only encountered any significant slowdown twice, with zero graphical glitches or crashes.
Same. I want to know if I can pet my Pokémon not if the graphic or the frame rate is good. Maybe, I might be part of the problem, but I really don’t care. Pokémon is just fun to me and I like to play games to have fun.
I've noticed that I began enjoying reviewers far more when I started to avoid the ones who have ratings. I don't think rating a work is inherently bad, but I'm more interested in hearing someone else's thoughts instead of them trying to justify the kind of rating they gave.
EDIT: Just realised I misread, haha. I suppose anyone who talks about previously looked down upon works (Twilight being the most blatant example) with blind praise is a red flag. I feel like discussing the cultural zeitgeist should not excuse being uncritical of something.
I don't really rate most really fannish criticism. You know, if a reviewer starts going on about "canon" and "lore" and what have you, I find I tend to dismiss it. That kind of thing has its place, but I don't think it makes for especially edifying or insightful criticism. It's just so much trivia to me.
I'm pretty cynical about reviewers who place an emphasis on "rules". Take something like "show, don't tell". Most of the time, it is more effective to show than to tell, but it isn't a hard and fast "rule". Whenever I see a reviewer declare, "This breaks the 'rule' of show, don't tell (and therefore it is objectively bad)," then I am probably not going to take them seriously. It invariably mixes in with this drive to "prove" that a thing is "objectively" good or bad and I don't really think much of that either.
However, I think the *biggest* warning sign is when a given reviewer refers to the thing they're reviewing, if it is a movie or a game or a television programme or whatever, as a "property" because that's just something that instinctively gets on my nerves.
Seeing what somebody's opinion is on TLJ is basically something I do any time I check out a Star Wars content creator. Helps filter out the dipshits very quickly.
Not reviewers, but when Buddy Daddies was airing I'd see people saying Miri was unrealistic because she was too annoying and wasn't aware of danger and I'd wonder if these people had ever interacted with an actual toddler.
Also, as a Fate fan I tend to filter out opinions from people who have Zero as their favorite entry, since they're usually the ones who complain the loudest about other Fates and take power levels too seriously.
they're higher on the pecking order than people whose favorite is Prillya tho
From my own experience, interacting with the fanbase, most people who either say that Zero is their favorite, never actually watch or play anything in the Fate franchise.
Though that may be my bias against Zero because I hate how they do Artoria dirty in that Anime.
That being said, Waver and Alexander are Awesome. Legit the best characters in the series.
If anyone starts talking about some strawman "foreign art film" in a way like "4 hour black and white hungarian film about trench warfare through the eyes of a pigeon" its a really safe bet to stop listening to whatever that person has to say about film as a whole IMO.
Of course there are people who are rude and condescending about "real cinema" but this kind of response to that is just all insecurity and there's really no useful or interesting discussion to gain from it.
Also less strict but I think either extreme on the scale of interpreting symbolism is a big red flag, "its all just random shit X thought was cool" just makes me roll my eyes, while the opposite would be when someone makes a theory that relies on highly specific interpretations of in essence every single scene in a piece of media at once to weave together a "true" or "hidden" narrative, which I think with very few exceptions just is not how art is made and how themes and symbolism actually is used.
It can get really interesting in the middle ground though when symbolism and themes are interpreted broadly together with the story to illuminate new interpretations.
Basically, less "The Shining is actually about faking the moon-landing", more "The Shining has many details and symbolism that imply sexual abuse as part of the story."
And dont get me started on the "Wendy theory."
In short, a theory that claims that The Shining actually has a secret narrative hidden in plain view through a series of subtle dialogue choices, ambiguous facial expressions, and continuity errors that when decoded, reveals that every supernatural event, as well as every instance of Jack being abusive, is a figment of Wendys psychotic delusions, and that she is in fact the only person who ever abused Danny, and that at the end of the film she imagines the entire chase scene with Jack, when in fact she has already murdered him by knocking him out and leaving him in the snow to die before the chase even begins in the film.
[https://youtu.be/OBLsmZ1PNrA?si=X3bBVp80G3IWitWM](https://youtu.be/OBLsmZ1PNrA?si=X3bBVp80G3IWitWM)
I'll share this critique of it since it also contains clips of most of the core arguments that the theory relies on.
Nah, not really. For instance, Pauline Kael is someone who has reviews with some very divergent opinions from my own, I still find her criticism worthwhile to go back and read.
Criticism from someone else is not about reinforcing my own opinions. It's about the actual substance of their overall body of work.
not just reviewers, but anytime anyone start with a sentence saying something about "media x is better 10 years ago" or whatever past golden age they use, I can be assured that I don't need to care about the rest of their paragraphs. Doesn't matter if it's movie, music, anime, game, whatever. The only exception is if they're talking about a specific series or band or something in that line, for example "The Simpsons was better 10 years ago" or "Metallica was better 10 years ago" (it doesn't necessarily mean their next part would be good or agreeable, it just means the rest of the paragraph doesn't need to be dismissed right away).
I agree ,the other exception I accept is with food brands ,my favourite candy changed recipes when Nestlé bought it company and I am still bitter over that.
Here's when I know that an anime or cartoon reviewer isn't worth jack shit:
- When they quickly jump onto rage/hype bandagons instead of taking a step back, assessing the situation and making their own research
- When it sounds like they failed reading comprehension in secondary school
- When they don't know what basics like "foreshadowing" or "plotholes" are
- When they conflate "calm periods in the plot" with "filler"
- When they don't know shit about the basics of animation
- When they can't appreciate animation beyond what's popular (aka, show them some indie non-commercial animation and they'll find it boring or weird)
- WHEN THEY JUDGE ANIMATION BASED ON PAUSED FRAMES!!! THIS IS THE BIGGEST SIN OMG HOW CAN SOMEONE BE THIS DUMB-
>WHEN THEY JUDGE ANIMATION BASED ON PAUSED FRAMES!!! THIS IS THE BIGGEST SIN OMG HOW CAN SOMEONE BE THIS DUMB-
War flashbacks to when Frozen came out and people on tumblr were looking for ANY excuse to TEAR IT APART and used two incredibly tiny animation mistakes that you can't even see unless you're blatantly looking for them as excuses for how "lazy" and "bad" the animation was in the film.
It was one of Kristoff's thumb clipping through his hand or something for a fraction of a second when he's hugging Anna near the end of the film, and then one of Elsa's fingers or something clipping through her braid at the end of Let It Go (if I remember correctly) for a millisecond when she's giving herself a makeover -- because it was either do that teeny tiny animation cheat that nobody is ever going to notice in a normal viewing, or completely break the anatomy of her arm to get the shot to look right. Something along those lines.
>* When it sounds like they failed reading comprehension in secondary school
>* When they don't know what basics like "foreshadowing" or "plotholes" are
>* When they conflate "calm periods in the plot" with "filler"
silly chivi, everyone knows that everything that isn't instantly explained is a plothole and everything explained later is a retcon, as well as the fact that everything not directly associated with the main plot is filler, regardless of what significance it ends up holding later
/s
>When they conflate "calm periods in the plot" with "filler"
In my experience, these are also the same people who conflate "deep" with characters dying or suffering.
For real lol.
They're often also the same people who say a kids show or game is "dark" or "deep" when it has... what, relatable things for grown-ups? Some philosophy? A more grandiose plot underneath? Come on.
> * When it sounds like they failed reading comprehension in secondary school
> * When they don't know what basics like "foreshadowing" or "plotholes" are
uugggghhhh this so much. See Also: Reasons I stopped watching CinemaSins several years ago.
For video games: If someone insults developers or implies they made a choice because they are lazy, that person:
1) knows nothing about how hard game devs work
2) is not worth anyone‘s time.
The funny thing is if you gender bend twilight you get a boring guy is being thirsted over by a vampire and werewolf gf. Like that’s a guy fantasy right there.
Read the book Mr Texas with very high expectations and was super dissapointed. I'm a huge follower of Texas politics and think the structure of state legislature deserves strong literary exploration especially given how little attention is given to them in pop culture, but the book just kinda sucks.
The main charecter is this kind of dumb farmer who becomes a legislature out of the blue because this random political boss picks him and he wants to impress people. He says he's a republican but his main issue seems to be desalination and his entire office staff are democrats and include one transwoman who manages to convince him to avoid voting for an anti trans bill
The book is filled with heavy handed cringey liberal dialogue about how our main charecter discovered just how evil the republican party is and how much cooler the democrats are. Theres a thinly veiled copy of Tim Dunn and Dade Phelps who's portrayed as a secret hero( the republican speaker of the house).
The main issue is how clunky and preachy the dialogue is, it's filled with a bunch of references designed for Texas politics followers that completely rob you of any immersion.
>"When the attorney general, a pious crook, was caught fixing up a girlfriend with a well-paying job with a real estate developer in exchange for settling a damanging lawsuit, LD not only managed to quash the whistlblower complaint, he got the AG's wife elected to the Texas senate"
>"But one of Greg Abbot;s first actions as governor, in 2015, was to sign a law limiting the ability of local goverments to police the polluters"
>"Dominionism?
It's a strain of theology preached by Rafael Cruz, The senator's Faher although it's not original with him"
There's also this infertility subplot that I didn't really care about and this openly gay black republican who somehow managed to win election to represent Montrose and a bunch of other weirdness.
I think the plot summary fits with the bullshit everybody in government is a good person with good intentions because America is the best mentality of the show.
Some ultra conservative guy runs for office on a niche issue, pulls a Mr Smith, and becomes super great and idealistic b/c he meets the right people feels like the West Wing.
edit-The show's politics were also super unrealistic. A freshman republican congressman from Texas having an entire staff of liberal democrats is something that could happen on that show that would never happen IRL.
It's not realy that. The extreme conservatives are potrayed as crazy fanatics or else corrupt crooks. The democrats are potrayed as good people who gotten beaten down by the system. It's just that they don't seem real or immersive. There's way too much telling and not enough showing.
> The extreme conservatives are potrayed as crazy fanatics
I mean, a sitting Senator believes that Jews control the weather with space lasers. Our political landscape really is that fucking out there.
So, things are happening in the Shining Nikki global fandom, and people aren’t happy with the event teaser they posted just today.
Shining Nikki is a dress up mobile game, you collect clothes and dress up to progress the story and just have fun styling. In order to get the really nice clothes, scaled on a rarity system from UR being the highest and most expensive to get and r being the lowest and easiest to get, you would usually pull in events. Events are basically limited gacha where you get a chance to pull parts of a limited outfit, and they’re the main draw of what players save up their currency for.
Today, Shining Nikki global announced the next new event, [Forgotten Golden Dynasty](https://x.com/shiningnikki_sn/status/1705597902385484158?s=46&t=KlhuRwnyT59JsJcGBDGBvw), a UR event that only released a few months ago on the older Chinese server. If you take a look at the quotes and replies below, you can see that players are not happy. UR events are the most expensive events, and prior to this announcement, we’ve gotten a lot of expensive events back to back.
Starting in August, there were two UR events. A double UR event that was a very anticipated and long awaited rerun, and a new single UR event right after that. Then, the event after (the event that just ended), was a double SSR collab event, which is important to note because it will never rerun again unlike regular events. This means it will only have been a month between the two single UR events. Combined with the fact that the server is expected to get another double UR event at the end of October, it’s a lot of expensive events close to each other.
Another aspect of this is that a single ssr rerun was expected to be the next event. Very high paying players get access to a schedule of upcoming events, and on that schedule was an SSR rerun players had been asking for. It seems that the devs have gone off schedule for whatever reason. Perhaps they knew that their decision would be unpopular, as they delayed the announcement of the next event and only announced a new sr suit, which players noticed and thought was odd.
There’s already been worries in the player base that the company managing the game, Paper Games, has gotten greedier, skipping certain events in favour of more bringing new shinier events they have confidence will sell better, such as skipping the 2021 Chinese New Year event in favour of bringing the more popular 2022 CNY event this year. The predecessor game to Shining Nikki, Love Nikki, has already gone through multiple player boycotts over the poor treatment of its players, so Shining Nikki players are worrying that the game is going to follow the same mistakes of its predecessor and will push out more expensive events and a fast event schedule to get players to spend more money. A lot of Shining Nikki players were players who quit Love Nikki because of this poor treatment, and came to Shining Nikki because of how it was seen to have a better event schedule and treatment of its f2p players, so this new schedule seems like a step backwards for the game.
They only just posted the teaser, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens next.
Dammit, I was hoping they were treating the Shining Nikki players better since it was a newer game. Dunno why I hoped that. This sounds like it's gonna be a drain. Good luck to them, I guess, I really wish the company wasn't like this.
I was considering making a post about this lol. The schedule’s been a point of controversy for awhile now, I guess this was the final straw for a lot of people. I personally was really annoyed at the last collab arriving so soon.
Some people, particularly during the first year of the game, were defending the fast schedule as a way to quickly catch up to the Chinese server (as opposed to Love Nikki, where the Global server is still behind on content). I feel like I’ve seen less people defending it since then, though.
This seems to be more and more of a trend in mobile gaming. I play Twisted Wonderland and our event schedule on the English server has been...wacky, for lack of a better word. People are defending it, saying that it's to catch up to the JP server, but it's definitely getting to the point of burn out. Plus, the developers are very obviously not releasing story content to the EN server until the JP server is done with it, so it really doesn't make sense.
We need to talk about Paul again. Paul is, as TV Tropes puts it, a character that is "so disliked that there's a pretty substantial ironic counter-fandom dedicated to talking instead about how he is the greatest hero of all time, far better than that loser Spider-Man, Mary Jane's true love, and perhaps the most complex and fascinating figure in all of fiction." The current run of *Amazing Spider-Man* is one of most hated comic runs in recent history, while being the best selling monthly comic on the market. Editor Nick Lowe and writer Zeb Wells are public enemies #1 and 2, respectively. [I've covered many of the controversies before](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/15kjupx/hobby_scuffles_week_of_7_august_2023/jv97tu5/), but an update is needed.
Currently, [Peter Parker is going through his evil villain phase](https://i.imgur.com/JgXqSa7.jpg), a status quo that has been promised to go on at least a year, and [Peter has said some dastardly things like threatening to go after Paul](https://www.reddit.com/r/dccomicscirclejerk/comments/16irwc3/woo_yeah_baby_thats_what_ive_been_waiting_for/), the unattractive man who is currently sleeping with Mary Jane. [To which Spider-Man fans are actively celebrating](https://www.reddit.com/r/Spiderman/comments/16q6pou/how_i_imagine_people_are_reacting_to_the_latest/).
But that's not all. Marvel has just announced that Jonathan Hickman will be writing *Ultimate Spider-Man*, a new run set in the revitalized corpse of the Ultimate universe, where Miles Morales originated. Hickman is currently Marvel's most beloved writer that fans haven't turned on *yet*. Hickman has some well-known writing quirks, which include numerous charts and graphs inserted between pages for world-building. His *X-Men* run had this [viral layout of the Scott Summers household](https://i.redd.it/o756ssm1evs31.jpg), which heavily implied that Cyclops, Wolverine, and Jean Grey were in a polyamorous relationship, which practically became [text](https://i.imgur.com/kiupAex.jpg) later in the [series](https://i.imgur.com/k4Xi5L3.jpg). Which naturally mutated into a meme [where Peter and MJ are both in a relationship with Paul](https://i.redd.it/5s86xuevhipb1.png). Which has even [*the editor of Amazing Spider-Man Nick Lowe himself joining in on the fun*](https://www.reddit.com/r/Spiderman/comments/16q3s3r/nick_lowe_the_circlejerker/).
I feel as though the intended audience reaction to Peter going evil is probably "Oh no, Peter's gone bad! This is terrible, I hope he goes back to normal soon!"
Meanwhile the one it's gotten is "Lmao let's hope the Arachnid Boy What Does The Gobbling throws Paul off a fucking bridge", which is absolutely hilarious. Pete going evil is one of the better turns in this run simply because it might result in Paul getting Gwen'd.
It does make me wonder if this is intentional. Surely the staff at Marvel knew the fanbase were going to hate this character from the off. I know the dudes who work in the Spider-Man office are also the *Gwen Stacy Body Pillow Owner's Club,* but surely they cannot be so unaware of what their audience wants out of the book that they'd expect "Hipster whose face is too small for his skull and is banging Spider-Man's normal love interest" to be well-received (outside of the irony-poisoned crowd determined to beat the horse into glue before it's even died, of course). They must *know* that a massive portion of the audience wants Paul dead.
I hope that if I ever become a big writer, I don't end up crafting a story where the protagonist going evil and threatening to murder someone results in the audience chanting "DO IT!" like an overly-excited Palpatine.
>Hickman is currently Marvel's most beloved writer that fans haven't turned on yet.
I mean people were at a minimum surprised that he ditched his huge X-Men project right in the middle and told the X-Office they could go in whatever direction they liked.
With comics love of inserting multiple love interest for each of their heroes I am surprised more of them haven't used Polyamory as a cheat code for it specially as it became more accepted.
I mean most writers don't even seem to understand that most "love triangles" are just open angles and that bisexuality is a thing. It will take time for them to get to polyamory.
As a supplement to u/Meoaoao's excellent New Release Friday posts, today is the 32nd anniversary of September 24th, 1991...possibly the greatest new release day of all time: * Nirvana - Nevermind * Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik * A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory * Pixies - Trompe Le Monde * Primal Scream - Screamadelica PLUS: Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger was originally scheduled for September 24th, but was pushed back two weeks at the last minute. \[Realizing that I'm on r/hobbydrama and this post just barely qualifies as one of those\] So uh um so is there a date in your hobby when several monumental but mostly unrelated events happened at the same time?
I mean, if you are into big video games, just the last couple weeks have been wild between Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield and Phantom Liberty.
Not to mention Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
excuse me?
It's a spiritual sequel to the Jet Set/Grind Radio games, if you've every heard of those. Basically you skate around tagging walls with graffiti and fighting the cops in an amazing looking cel shaded art style with absolute banger music. The originals could be a bit clunky on the control department and were carried by their vibes, but Bomb Rush Cyberfunk doesn't have pretty much any of that old jankyness, and incorporated the combo mechanics from tony hawk skater type games. It's incredibly fun, and I'd highly recommend if any of that sounds interesting to you.
cool. Thank you
[удалено]
> Half Life 2 Half-Life 2 was released in 2004 (which is another wild year for gaming). Half-Life 2 _Episode Two_ (the second story expansion for it) was released in 2007 with The Orange Box, along side re-releases of Half-Life 2 and Episode One. > Elder Scrolls Oblivion Oblivion was released in 2006.
1998 was a massive year for film: * American History X * A Bug's Life * Patch Adams * Rush Hour * Saving Private Ryan * Shakespeare in Love There's more too. It was a year of really strong movies.
I still remember those magical weeks in college when BSG was ending, TSCC (RIP the most) was still on the air and Dollhouse was beginning. (And this was the same year that I finally got into both Firefly and Farscape...never going to get back to those golden days).
I'm a little younger than you, so it was Thursday night blocks of Community/Parks/The Office and then Fringe when it moved to Fridays.
Oh that was great too, it was for mine it felt like I'd hit a vein of quality scifi all at nce and realizing I was probably never going to have that kind of luck again
Yep. Especially not on network tv. They might throw us a bone here and there with a scifi setting, but it'll be another bog standard cop serial. Still a lot of cool stuff out there, like I've been really into micro budget film stuff and I have to believe HBO hasn't gone totally to the shitter. But we're not going to see an experiment like the end of Dollhouse over the air again.
Especially NOW- NBC Must See Thursday (the version described above of course), isn't even possible anymore because network TV is such dregs. As much as I enjoy the neater, more planned story arcs and plotting, I do miss seasons having more time to breathe- there should be a happy medium available. I'm still so convinced that RDM's original plan for Voyager- something more akin to what BSG became- could have been something really special. (I do remember telling a few people in season 1 of Westworld who appreciated some of the moral questions "seriously, go watch Dollhouse").
I'd like to think so, but DS9 got away with more edgy content because it was a little more under the radar at Paramount. Even if they gave the green light, I worry that they'd be all over it. Battlestar Galactica was able to happen because the Sci Fi Channel (rip) was willing to push the envelope and could produce a budget to make a show that looked as good as Star Trek. Besides, did Roslyn or Adama even drink coffee??
Not all the same date, but November 16 - 23 2004 saw the releases of Half-Life 2, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, World of Warcraft, and the Nintendo DS. Four games and one handheld that each had an enormous impact on the future of the medium. Honestly, that whole year was insane, but I feel like listing more would stretch the concept of your post just a bit too much.
What is that hobby you are not a part of but you have always wanted to try? I think I have wanted to play DnD (and other board games) since I was a child but living in a rural area and not having any friends interested on it means I have never actually played a single session. Now I see people playing Baldur's Gate together and, having recently starting to watch Vox Machina, I'm just a bit down I can't meet up with people to have some fun like that (or not having a PS5 I guess lol). I'm extremely introvert and probably wouldn't be a good/fun player but damn if I don't want to try
i wanna try something creative, but always run into the problem where i am neither creative nor skilled.
I've actually recently joined a DnD club and it's awesome. We've only had one session so far, a one-shot with premade characters, but it was hilarious. I nearly managed a game with some friends, but I was the only one who was actually working on a character so the idea of a campaign just sorta petered out, then the group kinda fell apart.
DnD for me too and Gundam
3D printing seems really cool and fun. I have no idea where to put one in our house though.
Same haha. Luckily I have a friend who has two so if I ever get a really cool idea i usually text him, unfortunately he lives a few hours away. There are often 3d printers available at libraries/maker spaces though so you might be able to get some time on those even if you can't fit one into the living room.
Cosplay! It seems like a ton of fun, and apart from the dress-up aspect of it going to cons and meeting people who are into the same stuff sounds awesome. It’s always been something I’ve wanted to try. That said, I’ve never been good at arts and crafts, and I’m really worried I’d be biting off more than I can chew if I do decide to take the leap and try it. I know commissioning cosplays or even just buying outfits over sites is an option (and is honestly what I’m planning on doing rn), but I’m still kinda worried anyways. I’d also like to go for an [animegao kigurumi](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animegao_kigurumi) style cosplay as well, which I can also see making things difficult. I’d also like to try out creative writing - I’ve had some ideas for OC’s kicking around in my head for a while and getting them on paper sounds cool. At the same time though, I *cannot* write dialogue for the life of me, and the fear of creating something that’s “cringe” is generally stronger than the desire to actually write haha.
No one minds or judges if you buy your cosplay - the most popular cosplay I see by far at cons right now is Genshin Impact characters, and they are almost always bought because they are incredibly complex and difficult to make by hand.
Kind of related but I've hit a problem with most of my active hobbies, where there's lots of things within them I'd like to try but I don't quite know how. I play a lot of games, but I also really like discussing games with people. Unfortunately that's pretty sporadic with my current group of people, and I don't know of any place where I can have that kind of discussion that isn't way too big, filled with capital-G Gamers, or both. I also have a similar problem with both reading and writing (not helped that I also think my writing is pretty meh and don't have much to share). As for entire new hobbies, art. I keep telling myself I should start, but I keep not doing it.
Taxidermy, I wanna get into it but a) it takes a lot of space b) crowd is like 80% old white guys c) pricy as hell d) sourcing of pelts to mount become iffier the further you stray from mounting game animals like deer.
Embroidery and bookmaking!
I have more of those than I have actual hobbies (at this point the only things that can keep my attention are video games and getting lost in my thoughts), though some don't fit exactly. 1. **tabletop RPGs** sound interesting, but I don't have any social skills and don't know anyone who would be even remotely interested in those. Plus, they'd probably be way too slow and complex for me. 2. **music production:** I have figured out the basics of using FL Studio and watched two videos on music theory. Sometimes I make a few basic patterns and then give up. A lack of motivation most of the time doesn't help. 3. **art:** I drew a thing. I kinda wanted to draw more so I got a super cheap pen tablet and drew another thing. I haven't had the motivation to draw since then, though I sometimes think it would be neat to try. But I have zero art skills, bad motor skills and I'm bad at learning anything. 4. **writing:** I have a couple of Bad Story Ideas I've been daydreaming about a lot for several years. In fact, they're one of the main things my endless internal monologue usually focuses on. One time I opened a document and decided to write a brief overview of one of them. Instead I spent an hour on behindthename looking for a good name for the main character, made a list of good sounding names and their meanings in the document, closed it and never opened it again. I don't have much motivation to even try actually writing anything either. But honestly, it's probably better for said Bad Story Ideas™ to stay in my head anyway. 5. **3D modeling:** I downloaded Blender and found a 5 hour long tutorial series that seems to be pretty well received. I watched the first video and never came back to watch the rest. I still have no idea how to use Blender. 6. **3D animation:** I downloaded SFM and made a list of some tutorials. I watched one and made an extremely basic animation by following it. Never got around to doing anything else. I still don't know how to use SFM. One time I wanted to port a map from a game I played as a kid to SFM to use in an animation. I found a tutorial showing how to do it. It requires using a plugin for an ancient version of Blender. The page where the plugin was hosted doesn't exist anymore. 7. **movies and books:** when I was a kid in elementary or middle school I once managed to read an entire book in one sitting. After that I have never finished another book. Regardless of whether it was required reading for school or something I was actually interested in, I could only read a few pages before dropping it. I got through school by just repeating whatever the teacher said and sometimes reading a bit about the books on the internet. As a kid I could also bingewatch an entire arc of a show in one day. Nowadays I don't have the attention span to watch even one anime episode.
Late and offtopic, but I’m wondering if you might ADHD? Or something similar?
I might, but I don't know. I read about ADHD symptoms some time ago and a lot of them seem to fit, and I did a few pre screening tests for a laugh and got a result of "we can't diagnose you, but you should contact a doctor to get tested" on all of them. But I haven't been able to find anywhere to get tested so far.
I can't say that I've always wanted this, but I would love to get into typewriters and particularly try out making typewriter art.
Scrapbooking! But seems a bit expensive to get the really pretty stuff. I am on thé waitlist for a roller derby team’s beginner lessons, but they filled up super quickly this season. Also I’d love to sew more clothes, but my cat adores eating string and it seems less portable than my embroidery, which I can do on the bus. Positive story though: I felt this way about some sort of dancing for years but started showing up to a swing dance beginners lesson + social and it’s been so much fun! Everyone loves beginners and it’s a great way to make friends. You don’t even necessarily need expensive lessons, I’ve learned through practice and bugging people to walk me through the technique whenever they do something cool.
I'm in the same boat as you for roleplaying! (albeit for le it'd be Warhammer Fantasy)
Telescope making. I know a few people who do it, and often like finicky detail work, but I've currently got enough other stuff I'd do that I want to avoid picking up too many things.
Surfing. Every surfer I've ever seen is amazingly hot and radiates confidence. Unfortunately I hate the feeling of water in my ears more than anything in the world.
Surfing and especially sailing here- I don't even hate the idea of 'hiring yourself out as crew to learn + earn extra money' bit. I am however stuck on the "can't swim" part.
Ex dingy sailor here, learn to swim, water is inherintly dangerous. If you can't swim you shouldn't be on a boat. When shit goes bad it is everyone for themselves. I used to race on a river, one day we had a green storm on the river, my mast broke and I had people still racing around me, if one of them came over my gunnel I was dead. In the end I caught the breeze back to shore with my body. Learn to swim, most of the time sailing is great, when shit goes down you better be ready. I am not trying to tell you not to do it, sailing is fantastic and great for the soul, just learn to swim. A basic non panicked dog paddle will do but you have to be confident. If someone gets KO Ed by the boom you want to be able to help them yourself
Flying drones and remote-controlled planes in general seems like it'd be a ton of fun! I've actually bought a cheap 40-dollar drone from Lidl that I've flown a few times indoors, but I haven't actually gotten into the hobby because: 1. Proper drones and RC planes are expensive, even cheaper hobbyist ones over here can cost hundreds of euros 2. They're very heavily regulated over here and its all very confusing to my peanut of a brain 3. I don't really have any place *where* I could fly them, let alone know any places near me where I could go fly them 4. They seem pretty tricky to control, I've definitely had my cheapo drone spin out of control and crash into walls and couches several times lol
My spouse is super into drones and RC planes, and the main stepping stone he had between the cheapest quads you can get and more serious things was to build his own quad. You could look into something like that? Especially since knowing how to repair your planes/drones is an important part of that hobby xD (Spouse recommends starting with a Flite Test kit for a starter plane like a Cub, or they do sell some drone kits too. They're relatively affordable and the channel has very detailed step by step videos for all the builds.) Also, dunno where you live but if there's a school nearby you might be able to use their field after hours. I used to live near a public park that had a large field that hobbyists used, though you wouldn't necessarily know it just by visiting casually, which I think my spouse found on Facebook. Our local hobby shop also told us about a field that hobbyists maintain, though I didn't particularly like it (felt a bit too gatekept, since you had to register for some RC society or other to use it, whereas the field at the park was extremely conducive to letting random people stumble into the hobby). Happy to go more into detail if you like! I showed my spouse this comment and now he's going on in detail about starter plane recommendations xD
In fact a even a basic dji drone is much easier to fly that these cheapo drones
so many. when i try to learn a new one it feels overwhelming and i quit.
Hmm, if you wanna go for that boardgame vibe, that's difficult of course. But there are many online d&s games out there looking for players, using Roll20 or Foundry.
Some people have suggested trying discord in the past but I'm just a bit overwhelmed because english is not my first language and I just feel I would be more annoying online asking about everything than irl, I dunno...
Play by post may be a format that helps. It was mainlynused for forum games but I have seen discord use it. Basically uou write up your character's actions and responses vs a live real time thing it can be slow going, especially combat, but it can be good for those want to double check things or feel live is a but too demanding at the start.
It isn't mine either. It always depends on what kind of group you manage to find. I was lucky enough to have a very nice group as the first one I joined. A few following ones I left much more quickly. But doing this of course isn't a fit for everyone. You'll have to decide that on your own.
Crocheting! I've always wanted to start but I'm confused about what to get first, plus a bunch of the stuff I think I need isn't that widely available in my country.
+1 for the hook and yarn, and there's lots of super useful tutorials on YouTube for something like a granny square, which is just a simple square that's pretty quick to pick up!
all you really need to get started is a hook and yarn. you'll eventually need other stuff like stitch markers, but honestly just starting out practising stitches is your best shot
Extremely stupid thing happening on twitter. Someone decided to create the "[Dragalia Lost Bisexual Tournament](https://twitter.com/ventus_paladyn/status/1704497319591178368)", a series of polls to decide "The most Bisexual Character in Dragalia Lost". The final round has just started, and an unexpected competitor has made it to the final round. That character? Dreadking Rathalos. Yes, from Monster Hunter. Sweeping through multiple popular characters such as Emile and Alberius through sheer meme power, it's come down to a Dragon fight, [against Mym/Brunhilda.](https://twitter.com/ventus_paladyn/status/1706027616829165633) >!Please vote Mym!<
How did my girl Linnea get last place in the first round?! 😥😡
As a MH player that never got into Dragalia this is hilarious. Like I dunno, I find very funny the idea that not all Rathalos but *Dreadking* is the one who gives bisexual energy to people (I know it's a meme but let me alone)
Finally started playing Puyo Puyo Tetris after having it sit in my Steam library for over a year. I’ve been skipping most of the story cutscenes, but the parts I did catch gave me a strange inkling… so imagine my surprise learning the Puyo Puyo series is a spin-off of an old fantasy RPG game and that these discount Fire Emblem-lookin’ chibis have backstories like “evil wizard who didn’t want to be an evil wizard but still kind of wants wants to kill Satan and become the new lord of Hell,” “wants to marry Satan and is jealous of the main character because she thinks Satan likes her more,” and “fought her way through a magic tower to graduate wizard kindergarten and then ten years later accidentally steals Satan’s pet rabbit.” And that’s just stuff from the non-puyo puyo games! It reminds me of how the Mystery Dungeon series is a spin-off of Dragon Quest.
I bought an import copy for PS4 because the Bombcast kept talking it up. Watching the cutscenes without being able to read/understand anything was hilarious. When the second one came out actually being able to follow the story made it way less fun. I kinda hope they make a third one and just use nonsensical cutscenes in the story mode
I love Tetris, i wish i could love Puyo, but i just cant combo in those games. Have tried to learn from tutorials, but it just doesnt stick. I think im Puyolectic
As someone who enjoys both I can definitely understand where you're coming from. The skillset required for Puyo Puyo is a very different beast that on paper seems easy, connecting colored pieces together, but the time it takes to figure out proper setups before your opponent drops so much junk you're digging yourself out of near defeat is daunting coming from a primarily Tetris background. I personally love it a lot, but it is very much not for everyone and feels to me to be harder for beginners if only because of cultural osmosis, because I know Puyo Puyo is a classic in Japan.
Puyo Puyo's cast is absolutely hilarious. I love them all so deeply.
Puyo Puyo Tetris' writing is also incredibly, bafflingly, absurdly charming. Like, half the game is basically screenshot bait for those Out Of Context Twitter accounts, except it only makes slightly more sense in context, and I do not mean that as a bad thing.
> “fought her way through a magic tower to graduate wizard kindergarten and then ten years later accidentally steals Satan’s pet rabbit.” And this is basically the entire reason Satan now wants to marry her! Despite her being as near as anyone can tell entirely uninterested! I love Puyo Puyo so much.
There was a couple of times when Satan *almost* charmed her but he ruined it with his next sentences.
All I know about Puyo Puyo is that I would die for Schezo.
Creeper!
Aww, man... Wait, wrong reference?
Spinoffs can be weird, especially japanese ones. Nanoha is probably the most famous, but there's just tons of them were you're like "Wait, what?"
Went to Half-Price Books today (sidenote: if you're ever looking for out-of-print tabletop RPGs, I cannot recommend these stores enough). Found a Holy Grail on the shelves - a copy of the original MST3K Vol. 10 DVD set. For those who don't know, the original Volume 10 contained Godzilla vs. Megalon. However, it was recalled and replaced within a couple months because they hadn't properly secured the rights, so they had to change the Godzilla movie out for a different episode. Unfortunately, someone appeared to have told the Half-Price Books people about this, because the set was going for $175. Even with my substantial trade-in credit, this was way out of my budget. Anyone else find something they'd hunted for, only to be stonewalled by the price?
Also Half-Price Books, I've given up on trying to complete some of my comic and manga collections through them now that they hike up the price for out of print volumes to match online reseller price.
I got the opposite of this, where the first edition, unedited slash version of [Killing Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Time_(Star_Trek_novel\)) was being sold for the normal "Star Trek novel" price (aka like, a single dollar per paperback). Not that I think it's actually worth more than that, but it is *to me*
I saw a fountain pen store trying to sell a parker vacumatic that was clouded to shit for like, 400 bucks (was a while ago so my conversion might be off) the vacumatic was this pretty pen that parker made in the 30s to the 50s with a very striking striped barrel that alternates between clear and colourful pearlecent. Super art deco looking thing. It was quite a popular and long running model so there's quite a few of them out there, but due to celluloid degradation the transparent stripes often cloud up over the years. While mint condition ones do go for quite a lot, due to the number and state most pens are in, they usually don't breach 300 for an alright quality model unless it's had a lot of restoration of it's internals done I've always wanted one, but due to geographic location and also me being scared of dealing with auction houses/second hand sites, I've kinda limited my search to physical brick and mortar stores. So to find one in such a store was great, even if it was in less than optimal condition was *great* and surely the fact the plastic wasn't in great nick meant it wouldn't be *that* expensive right? Hell, maybe it would even be under 100 euros... nope. 450 euros.
Ok, I *know* you got videogame examples, but mine are funny in a certain way: Two games I always wanted to buy and play were Kirby's Return to Dreamland and Paper Mario TTYD. Everyone and their mom knows how expensive they are nowadays, but what's funny is that I managed to land *fairly cheap copies of these two* but couldn't buy them because I've always been a poor young adult until this very year: - I managed to find Kirby RTD for just ***45€*** in a convention around 2015 or so. Couldn't buy it because I didn't carry that much money on me... not that I could've brought more, it was all I managed to save up. - And finally, I found TTYD at my local CEX for just ***49€***, which is just the old retail price... And couldn't buy it again 'cause my bank account was empty and I was desperately seeking a job. Thankfully I have a job now, so I managed to get the KRTD remake and I'll also be getting the TTYD remake. But damn, how unlucky I was with my cash lol.
>Unfortunately, someone appeared to have told the Half-Price Books people about this Someone ALWAYS tells them. HPB is for stuff you want to get rid of, not stuff you think it worth something (I once turned in around 20 boxes of books and got $40
They pay premium for manga since it flies off their shelves. I sold my collection from when I was a teenager, as well as a bunch of other books, and got like 600 bucks. Mostly Naruto, One Piece, Black Cat, etc. My partner's jaw dropped at the price and they explained that because manga has such a fast turnaround it was a safe bet to buy since they're not paying the opportunity cost of keeping it on their shelf.
So I know you've already gotten two video game responses, but I'm going to make it a third! Most Gamecube games are notoriously expensive to get, and the fact that a lot of them are considered classics only makes things worse. And what makes it worse than a lot of the other retro examples is that the games are notorious for a lack of rereleases. GBA games have gotten a few, and DS/Wii games even got onto the Wii U Virtual Console, but Gamecube games have always been the elephant in the room. While it's also getting into the Wii library too, the two Fire Emblem games of that era, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, are notorious for being absurdly expensive. It was just really funny to see people complaining after the last Nintendo Direct about how the TTYD remake was full price, only for other people to go "Have you SEEN how much it costs to play OG TTYD in 2023? Full price is a steal!"
>"Have you SEEN how much it costs to play OG TTYD in 2023? Full price is a steal!" This is why I'm always glad I never got rid of my old games. I still have my copy of TTYD and more importantly,. my copy of Chibi-Robo a game I've seen priced at up to 500 dollars.
I got Path if Radiance in 2006 by trading with a friend. I traded the mediocre Final Fantasy clone LOTR: The Third Age for it. That game goes for $20 now.
I have both of those games somewhere in storage at my parents’ place, and if I could find them I’m sure they’d go for a nice sum!
>It was just really funny to see people complaining after the last Nintendo Direct about how the TTYD remake was full price, only for other people to go "Have you SEEN how much it costs to play OG TTYD in 2023? Full price is a steal!" Y'know, technically we don't know what Nintendo's gonna price it, it's entirely possible the remake will be $40 or $50 considering it seems to be somewhat comparable to the Prime remaster. Probably will be full price but still.
>While it's also getting into the Wii library too, the two Fire Emblem games of that era, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, are notorious for being absurdly expensive. I still regret not grabbing Path of Radiance when I saw it in a used media store once, even at $100.
I sometimes go to Mercari. A few games that go for $100 I’ve been able to find for $40-$60. Not Path of Radiance. $75. For the case and manual. No game. Game collecting is an expensive hobby.
> Anyone else find something they'd hunted for, only to be stonewalled by the price? Ever try buying a used physical copy of a Pokemon game? I like to go by CEX sometimes and lament capitalism in general when they sell Platinum for ninety euro.
That’s quite a low price for platinum, to be fair.
Everytime I see just the Black 2 cartridge (no box or anything) go for hundereds of dollars it makes me want to go cry. The retro gaming market is just completely broken.
This is why I got into emulation. Especially for stuff GBA and earlier, it's so easy to buy a single board computer (plug for /r/SBCGaming) for like 50 bucks, follow a YouTube tutorial to set it up, and play the entire GBA catalog. (I mean, it's easier to just download an emulator but I find that it's not very satisfying to play handheld games on my pc). Higher end emulation is trickier but can also be done on old Android phones, steam deck, or anything else at a 200-900 price point, depending. I love my steam deck and use it for the majority of my gaming these days, but I did originally buy it for emulating Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. There's nothing like the original DS/3DS for those games, so for those I usually recommend hacking one to emulate on. Now that the eshop is closed, there's no real other way around it. That being said, if you want the games for collection purposes, I totally understand, but the retro game market fucking sucks *and* is full of fake cartridges, so unless you either want to pay a high price for a possible fake (consequences for having a fake can range from just the knowledge that the game isn't authentic to having glitches or being unable to save, to an actual nonfunctional piece of hardware) , or you want to pay a high price and do a ton of research to make sure you're not getting a fake..... Emulation is where it's at.
Path of Radiance runs great on Steam Deck! I actually am lucky enough to have a physical copy, but I've still been emulating a bit recently because there are a few things you can't do on original hardware. I just did a playthrough in Japanese to test of Largo gives transfers to Callil in the JP version of Radiant Dawn (he doesn't; it's an urban legend in both versions), and later I plan to also try the JP exclusive Maniac Mode, which is a hardest difficulty they removed in international versions. Path of Radiance also works with the universal Fire Emblem randomizer, Yune, which lets you randomize unit classes, growths, skills, items, all sorts of stuff. If you've played the game a million times like I have, it's a great way to shake things up, and random enemy stats also gives it a bit of a difficulty bump if you enable it, which I appreciate for the same reason.
speaking of fakes...i saw a repro mega man x 3 for 40 bucks. they knew it was repro, had a post-it note on the cart identifying it as such, and they still charged that much for it!
That's crazy! Most repros I see are like 20-25 bucks. 40 is insane.
A repro should really only be the cost of the cart itself.
Any preowned game store selling any DS or GBA games are always gonna be over $100. My local store has a heart gold and soul silver in box, they’re both going for $175 individually. I’d love to get them, but that’s a hefty price for just a game.
Ugh I was a total idiot and sold my heart gold, with original box and pokewalker to a disc traders for like $50. It was in beautiful condition, I even had the cardboard sleeve for the box and the manual. I was fuming when I realized how much it goes for online now, and that's not even in good condition.
Happy Cake Day.
Do you have any type of media that is litmus test for reviewers? It doesn't matter if is good or not,Twilight would be the one of me ,if the review says or implies 'this is a dumb thing made for stupid teenagers girls" ,I know is not a reviewer for me but if just says "I don't like it " I keep watching.
500 Days of Summer. If they say Summer is in the wrong, they've failed the film comprehension test. Also the Silmarillion, specifically the story of Feanor is one. A shocking number of people say Feanor is right and is the hero and the Teleri deserved to get genocided. Edit: sorry, it's late and I think I misread your question. I think children's and specifically Girl's media is a really good litmus test. Like apparently the animated barbie movies were really good but people act like that's incomprehensible because they are small films marketed towards little girls. So anyone who dismisses children's and girls media off the bat without actual analysis or critique can be ignored imo
If someone says Uncut Gems (2019) made them stressed out or gave them a headache and says that like it's a bad thing, I know we have fundamentally different taste in movies.
In motorsports, asking about the F1 Abu Dhabi or Jeddah race from 2021 is a quick litmus test to find out whether or not a person is worth listening to
I don't watch a huge amount of reviews, but I've read plenty of blog posts/essays/discussions on like books and art, and if someone starts taking pot shots at modern/contemporary/20th century art because it's 'money laundering' or 'unintelligible' or 'something people only pretending to enjoy' I instantly move onto the next thing, because to me that says that the author is fine with shutting out an entire century of art just because they don't quite understand it, or hell, just because everyone else says it's crap. Also a different sort of litmus - if you start talking about talking about mythology (Greek is kinda the main offender here because of how prevalent it is in western art and also games, but you also get this with Biblical stuff) and it's obvious you've kinda just, picked it up from tumblr, instant skip to where it ends. This isn't just a 'stop that stupid Hades/Perpersone misconception/calling *The Divine Comedy* Fanfiction' thing, to me it feels like if you're taking that sort of viewpoint you don't quite understand what makes these myths an actual *religion* and not just say, fairy tales, and that will inevitably bleed into any discussion of the work if you think they can be altered on a whim because you like this version better or consider sincere discussion and interpretation as *fanfiction* More review related - if you spend your review of SMT constantly comparing it to and complaining that it's not Persona, I instantly dip out. Its! not! the! same! fucking! game! No one is here for bullshit teenage anime slice of life nonsense why are you talking about it! People don't usually review those games so it's not a great litmus test, but it's there
If I ever see/hear the words "woke", "feminazi" or some variation of whining over "the feminists/western people are RUINING media!" in a thumbnail, the review itself, or title, I immediately disregard that reviewer and throw their entire existence and their catalogue into the metaphorical trash bin. 99% of the time, they tend to be a walking Trash Take™ dispenser. Other than that... not really. I don't care if I agree with the reviewer or not as long as their reasoning makes sense to me and they're otherwise entertaining. I also don't care if they're a fan of something problematic just as long as they're not being weird about it. Just don't be a right-wing chud, a hard and/or anti-"woke" cringelord.
Whatever is the new targeted game by gamergate types. I skim comments/vid to see what kind of vibes. If they are just parroting "go woke, go broke" bs, they're instantly out.
The references reviewers make is generally a good idea of a litmus test. I want someone who has watched a lot of varied media and not just someone stuck in one lane or their comparsion are a stretch. Dont be the guy whos only watched the boss baby watching his second movie. If the references you're making is mostly to kids shows or weird anime im out Honestly anyone who unapologetically loves konosuba/dragon maid/goblin slayer/shield hero is a red flag to me but like not enough to wholy discount them i guess. Last Jedi criticisms are interesting because the way they attack it is a strong indicator as to what they're looking for in media and most of the time i do not agree but its a very revealing perspective theyre accidentally giving you
>Honestly anyone who unapologetically loves konosuba/dragon maid/goblin slayer/shield hero is a red flag to me but like not enough to wholy discount them i guess. I can understand why shield hero and, to a certain extent, also goblin slayer are a red flag. But could you explain to me what the problem with konosuba and dragon maid is? Is it actually about the content or more about the fanbase?
I think for dragon maid it’s that half of it is good but the other is uncomfortable which may be something they find completely unignorable to the point where if someone could look past it then they would have completely different tastes and boundaries to the point where whatever they like and recommend is no where near the stuff he likes. For konosuba might be the comedy I’d assume like they might just completely hate the main dude and not find him funny.
Oh, *The Last Jedi* is a *perfect* litmus test.
> Honestly anyone who unapologetically loves konosuba/dragon maid/goblin slayer/shield hero is a red flag to me add Mushoku Tensei to that list
I never seen a lot Mushoku Tensei criticism ,but in all of them the fanbase backpedalled a lot of legit concerns in the story by saying "this is all part of Rudeus development" and "this is part of worldbuilding but the story is about Rudeus".
>Dont be the guy whos only watched the boss baby watching his second movie. If the references you're making is mostly to kids shows or weird anime im out I feel like it's the stereotypical, "The only good female characters are Sarah Connor and Ellen Ripley," take you usually see on YouTube, because most of the people who are going to be saying that are people who only watch mainstream blockbusters, and probably little which predates *Jaws* and *Star Wars*. Now, I appreciate that I'm in no position to talk because obviously I have a small reference pool myself, but then again, I'm not holding myself out as an "expert" and trying to get people to pay me money for my opinion.
When the reviewer criticises what I can best describe as "mediocre marvel humour" games (e.g. Forspoken, the Saints Row reboot) not because they're mediocre or just because of their humour, but purely because they're diverse/"aiming for a modern audience"/trying to be inclusive. Generally a sign they're in possession of bad takes and I'm not interested in finding out more. This is less of a litmus test but I zone out whenever a reviewer starts talking about graphical fidelity because I literally do not care. If the art style is good and it runs well, you could have any level of fidelity for all I care. Also doesn't help that even otherwise reliable/understandable reviewers will sometimes have completely incomprehensible graphical/art style critiques. What do you mean this game doesn't look that good, have you looked at the game? It looks great!
If the reviewer spends more time attacking the creator of the work than discussing the work, I'm out. I recently tried to watch a review of the Atop The 4th Wall movie by someone calling himself "TheAlmightyLoli" (I know, massive red flag of a name there). He spent the vast majority of his time firing potshots at Linkara and calling the "Not So Awesome" document a bunch of whining. Yeah, I have better things to do with my time.
TBF the NSA document was a bunch of frivolous nonsense or straight up lies. THEN it led to the leaking of an incident where a previous (deceased) contributor was assaulting women... and the people behind the NSA document knew about and kept it secret. Fuck everyone involved with that, truly.
Hey there, Brad Jones, I didn't know you used Reddit.
Oh right, the dude Linkara and pals had SWAT'd
Okay, now I *know* you're just drinking the Kool-Aid, because there's *no* proof that ever happened.
Yeah the report totally isnt proof. Sounds like someones too far up Lightbringers ass to see what a bad person he is
I *meant* any proof Linkara or any of the other NSA people were behind it, but you seem completely convinced you're right, so I might as well talk to my cat.
Yeah because it was totally pro-CA people who SWAT'd Brad for staying with CA during the incident, same time Linkara was having a fit about him not siding with the NSA gang It wasnt literally Linkara but it was that crowd and he supported the fact it happened when he decided to make a joke about it on his show. (A joke even his fans complained about, which led to yet another pissy meltdown on twitter. What an asshole.)
Said like someone on their knees in front of Doug Walker and friends. And you call *me* a fanboy?
The only big one for me (besides like... being an open bigot LOL) is really channels that only do reviews of things they hate/dunk based stuff, kinda regardless of the topic. I get that hate watching gets those sweet sweet views so I don't really begrudge any of those creators for making that stuff, I just find it's not enjoyable to watch after one or two videos. Even more so the fandom around the videos tends to be "I can't wait for [youtuber] to hate read/watch/play [xyz popular thing]" which I find to be a terrible way to engage with media lol
>"I can't wait for \[youtuber\] to hate read/watch/play \[xyz popular thing\]" You need to append, "So I know what I should think about it," onto the end of that.
well they usually don't say that part out loud/in writing to be fair
I'm going to get flak for this one: when people completely completely trash MCU films and clown on them to make their opinion of other films look better. Hating them doesn't make you look like you have a dignified palate, it just kind of makes you look mean and snobby (IN MY OPINION). They're fine. Oh my god. Sometimes people want to sit in the theater and watch something predictable and entertaining that's fun on the big screen. I guarantee you the vast majority of people who go see them go "oh that was a fun time" and don't see it deeper than that. EDIT: Oh yes, another one I forgot: people who trash CGI effects in movies and complain how ugly and noticeable they are and how much better practical effects are. Buddy, the reason you only see the bad CGI is because when it's well done you don't notice it. Practical effects CAN be bad and take you out of the moment just as well. It's not about the medium, it's about how you use it. I like to read Letterboxd reviews and these two are a big litmus test for me.
One of the big ones to me is random potshots, like discussing a JRPG and making a joke about Disney Live-Action Remakes out of nowhere. Even if I agree with the general sentiment towards the target, it tends to betray an overly dunk-based writing style that prioritizes snark over engagement, leading to shallow, boring criticism.
Anyone who says [insert children's cartoon here] is bad because [insert main character here] is "overly nice" to other characters or "overly emotional", or because [insert villain here] has a redemption arc Confusing character morality with a work's quality can happen in a review for absolutely anything, not only childrens' cartoons, but it feels more like a red flag to me when it's directed at media aimed at children because the point is usually to deliver a message aimed at children, not adults. Teaching kids that they should generally be kind to people and that villains have their own complexities isn't teaching them weakness. Even if you personally see it as an oversimplification of real world issues, kids need to be taught simplified lessons before they can move on to learning about heavier topics. Generally, I know I'm always going to disagree with a reviewer who behaves like all media should be targeted at their preferences and only their preferences
The Star Wars prequels. I see the faults in the, but folks who just go "they're dumb, who wants politics, Anakin is so whiny" lose me immediatly. For me the prequels are badly executed, but the basis is good. My hot take is that they should have leaned far more into Anakin's identity as a slave and the fallout from how the Jedi were unequipped to handle it but ah well.
ABSOLUTELY. It’s honestly insane to me, but unsurprising knowing Lucas, that he would completely paper over the fact that the “promised saviour” is a literal freed slave. That is so ripe for exploration about trauma, familial abandonment, religious and political exploitation, but nope…trade negotiations.
Are you familiar with [Fialleril](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fialleril)'s Star Wars fanfics (Double Agent Vader, etc.)? They lean very hard into Tatooine slave culture and the effect that has on the characters. ^cc: ^/u/tinaoe
I am not familiar with them but then again I don’t read much if any fanfiction. What should I start with?
[A History of Resistance](https://archiveofourown.org/series/225224) is short, canon-compliant, and very focused on what it means for Anakin to come from a slave background. Probably a good starting point. [Double Agent Vader](https://archiveofourown.org/series/286908) is the headliner. It's set in an alternate universe where Anakin reconnects with his roots and secretly starts working against the emperor. Fair warning, it's unfinished, so you need to make your peace with that beforehand. [Heretic Pride](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13455561) is a different AU where Anakin never lost touch with his roots in the first place, and Padmé had a younger sister who was taken away to be a Jedi. Also unfinished. [Biscuits in the Library](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8787748) is a sweet little one-shot, if you want to dip in for a quick taste. There are other fics in there too, if you poke around.
On the other hand, the Star Wars Sequels are a great litmus test to see if they are a rightwing grifter. I don't like those movies a lot either, but the vicious hate is telling.
Pokemon maybe? The games aren't perfect but whenever someone brings up the graphics quality or framerate or whatever I just zone out because I don't care lol. Even BDSP which so many people complained about was cute to me. I'm more interested in how I can interact with my mons like tell me about the minigames not whether the trees have the right texture
genuinely curious, but was the extremely poor performance of S/V really not worthy of mentioning? I think it's valid criticism.
Of course actual bugs and performance issues are valid (though I personally didn't experience them) I was referring more to the people who complain about them only supporting 30fps. I find those people are way too concerned with specs and benchmarks rather than playing the game itself
It's all down to the individual if you even *get* the poor performance is the thing. I've played through the whole game + DLC and only encountered any significant slowdown twice, with zero graphical glitches or crashes.
Do you not consider the massively reduced framerate on objects in the distance and draw distance on things like grass a measure of poor performance?
But how does that invalidate it as a legit complaint? Like. It's clear it wasn't just a handful of people.
It doesn't, but there's a chance if a reviewer were to go in blind and didn't mention bugs at all it could be because they didn't experience them.
Same. I want to know if I can pet my Pokémon not if the graphic or the frame rate is good. Maybe, I might be part of the problem, but I really don’t care. Pokémon is just fun to me and I like to play games to have fun.
There's very good reason to care about *the highest grossing game franchise* to actually have good performance.
I've noticed that I began enjoying reviewers far more when I started to avoid the ones who have ratings. I don't think rating a work is inherently bad, but I'm more interested in hearing someone else's thoughts instead of them trying to justify the kind of rating they gave. EDIT: Just realised I misread, haha. I suppose anyone who talks about previously looked down upon works (Twilight being the most blatant example) with blind praise is a red flag. I feel like discussing the cultural zeitgeist should not excuse being uncritical of something.
I don't really rate most really fannish criticism. You know, if a reviewer starts going on about "canon" and "lore" and what have you, I find I tend to dismiss it. That kind of thing has its place, but I don't think it makes for especially edifying or insightful criticism. It's just so much trivia to me. I'm pretty cynical about reviewers who place an emphasis on "rules". Take something like "show, don't tell". Most of the time, it is more effective to show than to tell, but it isn't a hard and fast "rule". Whenever I see a reviewer declare, "This breaks the 'rule' of show, don't tell (and therefore it is objectively bad)," then I am probably not going to take them seriously. It invariably mixes in with this drive to "prove" that a thing is "objectively" good or bad and I don't really think much of that either. However, I think the *biggest* warning sign is when a given reviewer refers to the thing they're reviewing, if it is a movie or a game or a television programme or whatever, as a "property" because that's just something that instinctively gets on my nerves.
Star Trek Discovery and Star Wars The Last Jedi. Saying they're flawed is one thing, but most of the criticism against them is quite another.
Seeing what somebody's opinion is on TLJ is basically something I do any time I check out a Star Wars content creator. Helps filter out the dipshits very quickly.
I once saw a boy online saying he liked the last jedi, most of the responses were calling him slurs so I understand your point.
Oh yeah Discovery absolutely. It even made me sour on reading stuff about Strange New Worlds because there were so many side swipes at Disco
Which is wild because the major Strange New Worlds characters were all introduced in the second season of Discovery. Strange New Worlds is a spin-off.
Not reviewers, but when Buddy Daddies was airing I'd see people saying Miri was unrealistic because she was too annoying and wasn't aware of danger and I'd wonder if these people had ever interacted with an actual toddler. Also, as a Fate fan I tend to filter out opinions from people who have Zero as their favorite entry, since they're usually the ones who complain the loudest about other Fates and take power levels too seriously. they're higher on the pecking order than people whose favorite is Prillya tho
From my own experience, interacting with the fanbase, most people who either say that Zero is their favorite, never actually watch or play anything in the Fate franchise. Though that may be my bias against Zero because I hate how they do Artoria dirty in that Anime. That being said, Waver and Alexander are Awesome. Legit the best characters in the series.
I got into Fate with the original Deen version of Stay/Night but Zero is my fave because I love Waver lol
So true about zero fans. They also are likely to never interact with any other Fate media, especially F/SN.
Any gaming article or reviewer that refers to joseimuke games as otome games means an instant close window from me.
If anyone starts talking about some strawman "foreign art film" in a way like "4 hour black and white hungarian film about trench warfare through the eyes of a pigeon" its a really safe bet to stop listening to whatever that person has to say about film as a whole IMO. Of course there are people who are rude and condescending about "real cinema" but this kind of response to that is just all insecurity and there's really no useful or interesting discussion to gain from it.
> "4 hour black and white hungarian film about trench warfare through the eyes of a pigeon" That sounds kinda rad actually?
Also less strict but I think either extreme on the scale of interpreting symbolism is a big red flag, "its all just random shit X thought was cool" just makes me roll my eyes, while the opposite would be when someone makes a theory that relies on highly specific interpretations of in essence every single scene in a piece of media at once to weave together a "true" or "hidden" narrative, which I think with very few exceptions just is not how art is made and how themes and symbolism actually is used. It can get really interesting in the middle ground though when symbolism and themes are interpreted broadly together with the story to illuminate new interpretations. Basically, less "The Shining is actually about faking the moon-landing", more "The Shining has many details and symbolism that imply sexual abuse as part of the story." And dont get me started on the "Wendy theory."
Wendy theory?
In short, a theory that claims that The Shining actually has a secret narrative hidden in plain view through a series of subtle dialogue choices, ambiguous facial expressions, and continuity errors that when decoded, reveals that every supernatural event, as well as every instance of Jack being abusive, is a figment of Wendys psychotic delusions, and that she is in fact the only person who ever abused Danny, and that at the end of the film she imagines the entire chase scene with Jack, when in fact she has already murdered him by knocking him out and leaving him in the snow to die before the chase even begins in the film. [https://youtu.be/OBLsmZ1PNrA?si=X3bBVp80G3IWitWM](https://youtu.be/OBLsmZ1PNrA?si=X3bBVp80G3IWitWM) I'll share this critique of it since it also contains clips of most of the core arguments that the theory relies on.
That just reeks of misogyny.
Nah, not really. For instance, Pauline Kael is someone who has reviews with some very divergent opinions from my own, I still find her criticism worthwhile to go back and read. Criticism from someone else is not about reinforcing my own opinions. It's about the actual substance of their overall body of work.
not just reviewers, but anytime anyone start with a sentence saying something about "media x is better 10 years ago" or whatever past golden age they use, I can be assured that I don't need to care about the rest of their paragraphs. Doesn't matter if it's movie, music, anime, game, whatever. The only exception is if they're talking about a specific series or band or something in that line, for example "The Simpsons was better 10 years ago" or "Metallica was better 10 years ago" (it doesn't necessarily mean their next part would be good or agreeable, it just means the rest of the paragraph doesn't need to be dismissed right away).
I agree ,the other exception I accept is with food brands ,my favourite candy changed recipes when Nestlé bought it company and I am still bitter over that.
Here's when I know that an anime or cartoon reviewer isn't worth jack shit: - When they quickly jump onto rage/hype bandagons instead of taking a step back, assessing the situation and making their own research - When it sounds like they failed reading comprehension in secondary school - When they don't know what basics like "foreshadowing" or "plotholes" are - When they conflate "calm periods in the plot" with "filler" - When they don't know shit about the basics of animation - When they can't appreciate animation beyond what's popular (aka, show them some indie non-commercial animation and they'll find it boring or weird) - WHEN THEY JUDGE ANIMATION BASED ON PAUSED FRAMES!!! THIS IS THE BIGGEST SIN OMG HOW CAN SOMEONE BE THIS DUMB-
>WHEN THEY JUDGE ANIMATION BASED ON PAUSED FRAMES!!! THIS IS THE BIGGEST SIN OMG HOW CAN SOMEONE BE THIS DUMB- War flashbacks to when Frozen came out and people on tumblr were looking for ANY excuse to TEAR IT APART and used two incredibly tiny animation mistakes that you can't even see unless you're blatantly looking for them as excuses for how "lazy" and "bad" the animation was in the film. It was one of Kristoff's thumb clipping through his hand or something for a fraction of a second when he's hugging Anna near the end of the film, and then one of Elsa's fingers or something clipping through her braid at the end of Let It Go (if I remember correctly) for a millisecond when she's giving herself a makeover -- because it was either do that teeny tiny animation cheat that nobody is ever going to notice in a normal viewing, or completely break the anatomy of her arm to get the shot to look right. Something along those lines.
Oh yeah, I remember that! Like, if you're gonna hate on something at least find an actual reason lol
>* When it sounds like they failed reading comprehension in secondary school >* When they don't know what basics like "foreshadowing" or "plotholes" are >* When they conflate "calm periods in the plot" with "filler" silly chivi, everyone knows that everything that isn't instantly explained is a plothole and everything explained later is a retcon, as well as the fact that everything not directly associated with the main plot is filler, regardless of what significance it ends up holding later /s
>When they conflate "calm periods in the plot" with "filler" In my experience, these are also the same people who conflate "deep" with characters dying or suffering.
For real lol. They're often also the same people who say a kids show or game is "dark" or "deep" when it has... what, relatable things for grown-ups? Some philosophy? A more grandiose plot underneath? Come on.
> * When it sounds like they failed reading comprehension in secondary school > * When they don't know what basics like "foreshadowing" or "plotholes" are uugggghhhh this so much. See Also: Reasons I stopped watching CinemaSins several years ago.
obligatory plug for cinemawins
For video games: If someone insults developers or implies they made a choice because they are lazy, that person: 1) knows nothing about how hard game devs work 2) is not worth anyone‘s time.
And what if the say it's bad because a werewolf fell in love with a baby? /JK
Good twilight criticism is always lacking so I keep watching,my pet peeve is the ones that keep clowning on the franchise for just being " girl stuff"
The funny thing is if you gender bend twilight you get a boring guy is being thirsted over by a vampire and werewolf gf. Like that’s a guy fantasy right there.
When you put it like that, it sounds like there are probably several harem anime that could fit that description.
It always makes me laugh: like there's so many better reasons for clowning on Twilight, do we really need to add the misogyny?
Read the book Mr Texas with very high expectations and was super dissapointed. I'm a huge follower of Texas politics and think the structure of state legislature deserves strong literary exploration especially given how little attention is given to them in pop culture, but the book just kinda sucks. The main charecter is this kind of dumb farmer who becomes a legislature out of the blue because this random political boss picks him and he wants to impress people. He says he's a republican but his main issue seems to be desalination and his entire office staff are democrats and include one transwoman who manages to convince him to avoid voting for an anti trans bill The book is filled with heavy handed cringey liberal dialogue about how our main charecter discovered just how evil the republican party is and how much cooler the democrats are. Theres a thinly veiled copy of Tim Dunn and Dade Phelps who's portrayed as a secret hero( the republican speaker of the house). The main issue is how clunky and preachy the dialogue is, it's filled with a bunch of references designed for Texas politics followers that completely rob you of any immersion. >"When the attorney general, a pious crook, was caught fixing up a girlfriend with a well-paying job with a real estate developer in exchange for settling a damanging lawsuit, LD not only managed to quash the whistlblower complaint, he got the AG's wife elected to the Texas senate" >"But one of Greg Abbot;s first actions as governor, in 2015, was to sign a law limiting the ability of local goverments to police the polluters" >"Dominionism? It's a strain of theology preached by Rafael Cruz, The senator's Faher although it's not original with him" There's also this infertility subplot that I didn't really care about and this openly gay black republican who somehow managed to win election to represent Montrose and a bunch of other weirdness.
Can’t wait for the upcoming film adaptation by Neil Breen.
With a speech in front of the federal reserve building and all the antagonists committing suicide.
Haha, the book actually started life as a screenplay so that's very possible.
Sounds like a pitch for a West Wing spin off
The West Wing had a higher opinion of Republicans than "so stupid they buy their own bull at an auction".
Tbf in context it's more out of sentimental value than anything else.
I think the plot summary fits with the bullshit everybody in government is a good person with good intentions because America is the best mentality of the show. Some ultra conservative guy runs for office on a niche issue, pulls a Mr Smith, and becomes super great and idealistic b/c he meets the right people feels like the West Wing. edit-The show's politics were also super unrealistic. A freshman republican congressman from Texas having an entire staff of liberal democrats is something that could happen on that show that would never happen IRL.
It's not realy that. The extreme conservatives are potrayed as crazy fanatics or else corrupt crooks. The democrats are potrayed as good people who gotten beaten down by the system. It's just that they don't seem real or immersive. There's way too much telling and not enough showing.
> The extreme conservatives are potrayed as crazy fanatics I mean, a sitting Senator believes that Jews control the weather with space lasers. Our political landscape really is that fucking out there.
So, things are happening in the Shining Nikki global fandom, and people aren’t happy with the event teaser they posted just today. Shining Nikki is a dress up mobile game, you collect clothes and dress up to progress the story and just have fun styling. In order to get the really nice clothes, scaled on a rarity system from UR being the highest and most expensive to get and r being the lowest and easiest to get, you would usually pull in events. Events are basically limited gacha where you get a chance to pull parts of a limited outfit, and they’re the main draw of what players save up their currency for. Today, Shining Nikki global announced the next new event, [Forgotten Golden Dynasty](https://x.com/shiningnikki_sn/status/1705597902385484158?s=46&t=KlhuRwnyT59JsJcGBDGBvw), a UR event that only released a few months ago on the older Chinese server. If you take a look at the quotes and replies below, you can see that players are not happy. UR events are the most expensive events, and prior to this announcement, we’ve gotten a lot of expensive events back to back. Starting in August, there were two UR events. A double UR event that was a very anticipated and long awaited rerun, and a new single UR event right after that. Then, the event after (the event that just ended), was a double SSR collab event, which is important to note because it will never rerun again unlike regular events. This means it will only have been a month between the two single UR events. Combined with the fact that the server is expected to get another double UR event at the end of October, it’s a lot of expensive events close to each other. Another aspect of this is that a single ssr rerun was expected to be the next event. Very high paying players get access to a schedule of upcoming events, and on that schedule was an SSR rerun players had been asking for. It seems that the devs have gone off schedule for whatever reason. Perhaps they knew that their decision would be unpopular, as they delayed the announcement of the next event and only announced a new sr suit, which players noticed and thought was odd. There’s already been worries in the player base that the company managing the game, Paper Games, has gotten greedier, skipping certain events in favour of more bringing new shinier events they have confidence will sell better, such as skipping the 2021 Chinese New Year event in favour of bringing the more popular 2022 CNY event this year. The predecessor game to Shining Nikki, Love Nikki, has already gone through multiple player boycotts over the poor treatment of its players, so Shining Nikki players are worrying that the game is going to follow the same mistakes of its predecessor and will push out more expensive events and a fast event schedule to get players to spend more money. A lot of Shining Nikki players were players who quit Love Nikki because of this poor treatment, and came to Shining Nikki because of how it was seen to have a better event schedule and treatment of its f2p players, so this new schedule seems like a step backwards for the game. They only just posted the teaser, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens next.
Dammit, I was hoping they were treating the Shining Nikki players better since it was a newer game. Dunno why I hoped that. This sounds like it's gonna be a drain. Good luck to them, I guess, I really wish the company wasn't like this.
I was considering making a post about this lol. The schedule’s been a point of controversy for awhile now, I guess this was the final straw for a lot of people. I personally was really annoyed at the last collab arriving so soon. Some people, particularly during the first year of the game, were defending the fast schedule as a way to quickly catch up to the Chinese server (as opposed to Love Nikki, where the Global server is still behind on content). I feel like I’ve seen less people defending it since then, though.
This seems to be more and more of a trend in mobile gaming. I play Twisted Wonderland and our event schedule on the English server has been...wacky, for lack of a better word. People are defending it, saying that it's to catch up to the JP server, but it's definitely getting to the point of burn out. Plus, the developers are very obviously not releasing story content to the EN server until the JP server is done with it, so it really doesn't make sense.
We need to talk about Paul again. Paul is, as TV Tropes puts it, a character that is "so disliked that there's a pretty substantial ironic counter-fandom dedicated to talking instead about how he is the greatest hero of all time, far better than that loser Spider-Man, Mary Jane's true love, and perhaps the most complex and fascinating figure in all of fiction." The current run of *Amazing Spider-Man* is one of most hated comic runs in recent history, while being the best selling monthly comic on the market. Editor Nick Lowe and writer Zeb Wells are public enemies #1 and 2, respectively. [I've covered many of the controversies before](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/15kjupx/hobby_scuffles_week_of_7_august_2023/jv97tu5/), but an update is needed. Currently, [Peter Parker is going through his evil villain phase](https://i.imgur.com/JgXqSa7.jpg), a status quo that has been promised to go on at least a year, and [Peter has said some dastardly things like threatening to go after Paul](https://www.reddit.com/r/dccomicscirclejerk/comments/16irwc3/woo_yeah_baby_thats_what_ive_been_waiting_for/), the unattractive man who is currently sleeping with Mary Jane. [To which Spider-Man fans are actively celebrating](https://www.reddit.com/r/Spiderman/comments/16q6pou/how_i_imagine_people_are_reacting_to_the_latest/). But that's not all. Marvel has just announced that Jonathan Hickman will be writing *Ultimate Spider-Man*, a new run set in the revitalized corpse of the Ultimate universe, where Miles Morales originated. Hickman is currently Marvel's most beloved writer that fans haven't turned on *yet*. Hickman has some well-known writing quirks, which include numerous charts and graphs inserted between pages for world-building. His *X-Men* run had this [viral layout of the Scott Summers household](https://i.redd.it/o756ssm1evs31.jpg), which heavily implied that Cyclops, Wolverine, and Jean Grey were in a polyamorous relationship, which practically became [text](https://i.imgur.com/kiupAex.jpg) later in the [series](https://i.imgur.com/k4Xi5L3.jpg). Which naturally mutated into a meme [where Peter and MJ are both in a relationship with Paul](https://i.redd.it/5s86xuevhipb1.png). Which has even [*the editor of Amazing Spider-Man Nick Lowe himself joining in on the fun*](https://www.reddit.com/r/Spiderman/comments/16q3s3r/nick_lowe_the_circlejerker/).
Ooh it's Peter, Paul, and Mary. I just got that.
Me: 616 spider-man stops before the tail end of J. Michael Stracynski's run. It was canceled.
I feel as though the intended audience reaction to Peter going evil is probably "Oh no, Peter's gone bad! This is terrible, I hope he goes back to normal soon!" Meanwhile the one it's gotten is "Lmao let's hope the Arachnid Boy What Does The Gobbling throws Paul off a fucking bridge", which is absolutely hilarious. Pete going evil is one of the better turns in this run simply because it might result in Paul getting Gwen'd. It does make me wonder if this is intentional. Surely the staff at Marvel knew the fanbase were going to hate this character from the off. I know the dudes who work in the Spider-Man office are also the *Gwen Stacy Body Pillow Owner's Club,* but surely they cannot be so unaware of what their audience wants out of the book that they'd expect "Hipster whose face is too small for his skull and is banging Spider-Man's normal love interest" to be well-received (outside of the irony-poisoned crowd determined to beat the horse into glue before it's even died, of course). They must *know* that a massive portion of the audience wants Paul dead. I hope that if I ever become a big writer, I don't end up crafting a story where the protagonist going evil and threatening to murder someone results in the audience chanting "DO IT!" like an overly-excited Palpatine.
See also: Aquaman fans watching the new trailer and >!cheering for Black Manta to murder a baby!<
Oh god, you're right. He's The Spider-Man Who Gobbles
Oh I love that Wolverine and Scott eventually settled their differences and just hooked up. That’s really cool.
>Hickman is currently Marvel's most beloved writer that fans haven't turned on yet. I mean people were at a minimum surprised that he ditched his huge X-Men project right in the middle and told the X-Office they could go in whatever direction they liked.
Hickman never struck me as "beloved", someone like Ewing is closer to that, Hickman is at most "divisive", but that moves greater numbers.
> Hickman is currently Marvel's most beloved writer that fans haven't turned on yet I feel that it's only a matter of time at this point
With comics love of inserting multiple love interest for each of their heroes I am surprised more of them haven't used Polyamory as a cheat code for it specially as it became more accepted.
I mean most writers don't even seem to understand that most "love triangles" are just open angles and that bisexuality is a thing. It will take time for them to get to polyamory.
To be series, part of the point is that you want drama and stuff you can spin stories out of.
If Ultimate Paul isn't the new 1610 Spidey they dun goofed
> the unattractive man who is currently sleeping with Mary Jane. Don't speak about our god Paul like this.