The Tibetan Fox always makes me think of Gmork.

I think I should try to be less provocative with my words. Stomping into a conversation with loaded language is not the best way to get my points across, thank you for your demeanor.

It’s probably like a sleeper activation phrase to me at this point and I got annoyed.

I’m sorry, I specifically choose terms like this to set people off. I want them to figure out what actually triggers them about how I’m using the phrase and whether or not it’s valid.

I would just like us all to be a little more aware about the what’s and why’s surrounding things we get emotional about. Otherwise our emotions will inevitably be used against us, directly or indirectly.

Look at these DEI hires making history. How dare they ruin the narrative.

I think that’s a bit different from setting up a drone to bring you a gun, personally.

I didn’t bother discussing how online leftist infighting affects real life, it’s not relevant compared to, say, the much realer issue of left-orgs blowing up because of, say, someone being outed as a sex pest or someone slandering someone they don’t like anymore (which isn’t an issue only relegated to the left, the right does this way more often)

Please don’t get me wrong, my motivations were not ‘both sides’ or something along those lines. Maybe not obviously, but it’s clear to me that we both believe the side bringing measles back is the wrong one.

My problem is that these terminally online leftist spaces end up being the narrative sent to (or experienced by) the brainwashed masses on the right. Simply not engaging with an online space is ineffective when trying to combat their manipulation of word of mouth messaging.

I’m not trying to argue for the right to say slurs. Unless they’re directed at conservatives, then I’m conflicted.

Yeah I have no issue with not saying slurs (and saying I can’t say slurs is fucking dumb, I choose not to because I understand why I shouldn’t — not because trogs on their high horses tell me no), my problem is that you took the phrase ‘shit like tone policing’ and immediately assumed this must be the singular problem I have with how the left communicates. Thus spurring on an entire comment on why the left doesn’t communicate with the right.

I’m not suggesting the left communicate with the right, at all. I’m suggesting the left needs to learn how to communicate amongst itself because things like no no words end up functioning as thought terminating cliches — see your entire comment for reference.

Still falls under your control in that instance, unless you’ve got someone else summoning it for you (we don’t need to talk about how, just assume it’s a drone and not magic) at which point we’re talking about a conspiracy.

Oh so your argument is that people are still free to speak, just not on online platforms.

Yeah I’m not going to take the time to break your argument down; it’s fucking dumb, do some reflecting.

With what organization? The left is too busy with shit like tone policing for any cohesive narrative to take root.

Turns out when your brain is filled with no-no words that effectively act as thought terminating cliches you end up being unable to effectively communicate with people you disagree with. Crazy how the far right simply does not have this problem, no? Granted they aren’t really for ‘discussion’ or ‘debate’ or ‘deliberation’ in the same way leftists are, and their thought terminating cliches are much worse; climate change being one of the big ones.

Poe’s Law

Gambling is like alcohol, some is fun but you need to learn your limits.

If you go into gambling thinking ‘I’m gonna make 100 dollars!’ you’re gambling wrong. If you go into gambling thinking ‘I’m gonna spend 100 dollars.’ you’re gambling correctly.

Gotcha, so your point is not that meditation is woowoo; your point is that expecting meditation to connect you to the spirit realm is woowoo.

Just so we’re clear, this is called transcendental meditation and I’m pretty sure it was created and started by an Indian man in India.

Edit: ooh, didn’t like that one did ya? You’ve earned your tag.

My feelings on the Last of Us are complicated. Last of Us in isolation is good, TLoU and TLoU2 together are bad. Way better story than Crimson Desert’s, though.

Mass Effect… I’m sorry but everything past 1 was bad, and 1’s story was good because of the expectations set up for future games. Like Kliff, Shephard is a nothing character — only there’s an actual narrative driven by him/her and the rest of the cast + the events from the previous game.

We’ve discussed Zelda and Dark Souls, but I think Valheim is actually a point against what you’re saying — yes you’re reacting to the world but Valheim has next to no story (I’d say no story but I haven’t played it in a while).

Kliff could have been anyone. You could replace Kliff as the main character with Damiane and the story literally wouldn’t change (only you can’t because the Abyss can only be accessed by Kliff).

Only for >!this to mean absolutely fucking nothing because Oognka goes where he pleases.!<

I think the world is beautiful and you could subtract the entire beginning of the story and filled the game with only side quests and side stuff in the world — it would have been a better experience. Simply deleting the dogshit Yann and Naira quests would make it a better experience. If a game’s story would be strictly better with half of it deleted, I’m sorry but the story is just bad.

Edit: not a huge spoiler but I’m sorry, I meant to be spoiler free.

Edit: Forgot Shephard is unisex.

Are you suggesting meditation is ‘woowoo’?

Legend of Zelda, believe it or not, does not have individual good stories.

Great games, love me some LoZ — stories are consistently weak across all entries. Robust lore, poor individual narratives— see Dark Souls if you want another example.

That all being said: the game (Crimson Desert) very strictly establishes rules regarding the Abyss. Kliff is the only one who’s allowed to go up there — because reasons! He’s the hero!

I spoil something here so be warned - >!To reiterate, the game is very strict about letting anyone but Kliff up into the Abyss throughout the entire game. You’d think there’d be some overarching reason for it, right? No, Oongka practically instant transmissions to save you at the end of the game. No explanation for why he’s there, no explanation for why he couldn’t go there before — nope he just pops in and saves you from… it’s still not clear.!<

Like I’ve beaten the game. The bit I mentioned up above literally made me burst out laughing. If it weren’t for how cool and alternative the unarmed system is, I’d have put the game down right then out of boredom.

Bottom line: you’re allowed to like whatever you want, but Crimson Desert would have been a better experience with a custom character and less narrative. I mean for fucks sake, Kliff literally has a canned goofy ass ‘Yes’ response for random NPC dialogue — it literally would have been better if they just made him not speak.

Edit: oh, that’s to say nothing of fucking Yann. When one of the only memorable characters in your story (because yes, everyone involved in the narrative is simply forgettable) is only memorable because the character routinely pisses you off — I’m sorry but your story is cheeks.

Oh, hey — I’ve gone through this since his first term.

Yeah I asked my Trump loving office trog what he thinks about all the stuff Trump, Hegseth and the other sycophants say. His response boiled down to ‘I don’t pay attention to everything they say or do.’

The average Trump voter will not be described as discerning in the history books. It’s a shame they’ve been allowed to be the loudest Americans.

Again, that’s largely my point. You can’t market a game and just sell 5 million units. Marathon sold 1.2 million units because a) it’s a Bungie game so people would be paying attention to it and b) it had heavy marketing behind it. It would’ve sold even less without those two things, but that’s besides the point. The idea that you can just sell 5 million units through marketing is simply not true and Marathon proves it.

Let’s put this into perspective here.

Pearl Abyss is a relatively unknown dev, Black Desert is not an unknown IP. Pearl Abyss has been pushing BDO for years, roping in larger streamers to play their game over time. BDO is a game that does not respect your time however, and player retention is pretty low as a result. Actually, the BDO community itself is known for helping newbies through some awful grinds — mainly because they recognize that most newbies simply won’t withstand it. This has created a pretty committed community towards the game, and Pearl Abyss hasn’t been actively shitting on them. I can’t think of a better word of mouth machine, especially one already entrenched in social media platforms like Twitch.

Meanwhile, Bungie has spent the better part of the last 5 years making it clear to anyone with a brain that Destiny 2 is simply a cash cow for developing other IPs. Bungies content creator network has seemed like paid actors for years, I know because I played Destiny 2. If Pearl Abyss has been generating their community, Bungie has been actively destroying theirs.

Bottom line, Pearl Abyss has set themselves up for people to give them a chance and the recent success of Crimson Desert is the culmination of years planting seeds. Meanwhile Bungie has been resting on their laurels, actively destroying their community, creating people like me who will simply never purchase a Bungie IP again — and the game still sold over 1.2 million copies.

If anything, Marathon’s success is a testament to the power of marketing pushes.

I want you to tell me a singular storypoint that requires Kliff to be Kliff.

And my point is that if you asked your normie gamer, which really didn’t exist in the same form, in 2005 who Bungie is — you’d mostly get question marks.

The comparison to Marathon was explicitly to debunk the idea that you can sell 5 million units simply by doing marketing.

This would be relevant except that Marathon only sold as well as it did because of the heavy marketing push. If you’ve been following what Bungie has done with Destiny 2 then you should know it’s fucking amazing anyone bought into that soulless trash. They have burned so many bridges with their community. Had they released Marathon before Bungie was sold to Sony it would undoubtedly have sold better. They literally needed the marketing push.

Yet if you’d said Elite Dangerous it would be much more recognizeable, just like BDO is with Pearl Abyss.

Plus, Pearl Abyss has been working to get people to play their mmo for quite some time — Shroud played it for a bit and I know some other popular mmo streamers played it. All of this to say, Crimson Desert’s success is not wild — and using Marathon as a metric is just the worst thing you could do because Pearl Abyss hasn’t been shitting themselves reputation-wise.