Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

Ah man, it's been an uncommonly good day for me today! I woke up and watched the Pokemon Direct first thing, and bloody loved everything about it! Super hyped for that!

Then went to work and had an extremely busy day, but despite that, it went considerably well which made it almost fly by! Always a pleasure! And one of my elementary school kids made me an origame flower as a present which was just amazing! Super quiet kid who never really does much obvious in class, so I was doubly surprised!

Then I get home and waiting for me in the mail box is Gundam 40th Anniversary Best Mix 4 decades of Gundam music - in a lovely 2 CD package! Which has had me nerding out intensely all night!

Had a nice meal at a little Italian place in the mall and got my grocery shopping done! Now I can kick back wish some hard cider and relax because I have a lovely 3 day weekend coming up! I don't think I could have honestly asked for a better day today!

Oh yeah, I guess we avoided WW3 too. For now. That's nice!

#feelsgoodman

Now, the question is, how long till my neighbors complain about this music blasting?

Only the truest Wiintellectual Wiizards from the remote Wiinterstellar dimension have played the Endless Ocean games.

But seriously, those were pretty good games. I've been playing some Blue World recently.

@Heavyarms55 - Nice little day you’re having for yourself, real nice. There’s probably only a couple hours left, but let it ride! It feels amazing when everything falls in line with minimal hassle. It’s as though the sea of annoying things has parted for you today. So much better than the days that feel as if you’re the star of a miserable, troll version of the Truman Show, and everyone’s favorite episodes end with you crying in the shower.

@Vinny - I didn’t know about Endless Ocean until a few years ago, but they’re right up my alley, and I’ll probably play them some day. Where does a serious Boom Blox addiction put me on the WiiZard scale?

@bimmy-lee
You can try Go Vacation Switch too if you like Scuba Diving and other Sport activities.

Edit: Sorry.... I was coughing. 😷
Rainy season made me caught a cold.

@Anti-Matter - Yeah, I’ve looked at that one a few times, I remember the review as well. I’ll probably get The Touryst some day, which had sections like that as well. I was going to get Abzu for a while, but I’ve passed it up on sale; so I think that time has come and gone.

No coughing! Don’t let the cold win. Focus your energy, and burn it out from the inside .

@bimmy-lee Bloom Blox is top Wii-tier, true elder Wiizards surely have played this game a lot.

@Vinny - That makes me feel good, think I’ll put on my Wizrobe, and slide my Wiimote into the off brand wizard’s staff accessory that doesn’t actually work with any particular game.

@bimmy-lee lol, the master of power up stealing is a title we can all respect.
@Tyranexx finished Yoshis story last night(VERY short game but it has alot of replayability) so I started zero mission. Not sure if the whole game is like this but I'm finding power ups and upgrades frequently(which i like, otherwise gameplay feels stale to me). Already got grapple, morph, bomb, charge beam, long beam, ice beam( maybe 1 more?). Feel like I progressed quite a bit already after playing for a good hour. Question: I notice they have destinations marked on the map, at least early on in this game, is that something i can get used to or does it eventually not tell you where to go?

@NotTelevision I think in the US the main issue is where most countries have one unified propaganda stream with one shared message that most people believe that the leadership wants the public to have, the US has two conflicting propaganda streams, one in contrast to the other, though one is more widespread than the other... In theory that should be a good thing as it should give people more conflicting information to need to resolve. But in reality people seem to have no interest in divining the truth between the conflicting "narratives" and it just leads to "picking a team and sticking with it." Even if both of them are lying equally as much - and right equally as much. Worse is when they overlap and have the same "true lie" because ultimately the dispensers of both propaganda streams are generally the same group of elites representing the same stakeholders, with the same common interests, just different interests in particular arenas. Nobody doubts them when they agree. That's a dangerous tool they have, and I can think of no counter for it at all.

@Heavyarms55 Haha, will do!

@bimmy-lee Ok I have no idea what this wall turkey thing is about but if I'm reading correctly, you're hobbit's pimp, and there's a meth deal going down with NBN? That's what I'm getting form this anyway.

@NEStalgia - Meth is too middle last decade. It’s CBD vape cartridges. I have to move this inventory fast before the vape market dies.

I didn’t realize you were actually confused, but I guarantee you know these references. It’s probably video game references in the chit chat thread throwing you off. The wall chicken is the health restoring chicken you find hidden in secret, destructible walls in the Castlevania games, and the garbage can turkey and apples are from the Streets of Rage series. I can’t really remember how they became relevant in this thread for the last few days, something about a vampire beat em up on Netflix, or maybe something about six pack abs, not sure.

@bimmy-lee I don't even know what CBD vape cartridges are, and there's 3 places here that sell them. I see a sign in the window that says "no prescription required" and a pot leaf with a heart. In my day we called that "drug dealing." I'm not sure how that works. I'm not sure I want to know what the "CBD vape" thing is.

Ahhh, wall chicken...I get it now! I never called it that, but you learn something new every day!

So is the vaping a metal gear reference then?

@Heavyarms55 Glad you had a great day! Cherish them; IMO they make the rest more bearable.

@NEStalgia That's actually a pretty decent summary of the propaganda machine here in the US. I try to get most of my news in a nonpartisan manner, but that's really hard to do sometimes. Sometimes it amounts to "they said, no, THEY said" and you don't know how to process some things....

I have no problem with factual reporting as long as it's as unbiased. But when it's crowded by loaded rhetoric and half-truths (some Americans don't seem to realize both courts do this) when all the facts aren't known or presented...I find that dangerous. Characters can be ruined when they needn't be. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

@NintendoByNature I wish I could more accurately answer that question as it's been awhile, but I THINK there are always indicators. The game is still fairly open but is somewhat short unless you're going for 100% item completion. I've also only played the game in normal mode, so higher difficulties may have that turned off.

Not sure if you've played the original Metroid, but let's just say this game makes it worth revisiting Zebes over the NES original.

@NEStalgia, to stay topical, what do you make of this article that purports that, whether they're being forced to or not, companies like Activision & EA are knowingly creating franchises like Call of Duty to act as propaganda for the American government, and that within the next few years will feature Iran (or an Iranian stand in) to build public support for a war.

http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2020/01/the-propaganda-we-...

@Tyranexx But, indeed, it's all unbiased, as long as you're listening to the right side! All the legitimate news outlets have factual, unbiased reporting only the facts supported by the data. It's only the OTHER side's news outlets that are biased!! sigh

It's amazing that the regulars here in NL seem to be more open in thinking to understand the biases all around from all "sides" etc than most of the mainstream public. It makes me think it times - no wonder the same media has a coordinated agenda against video games. It seems gamers, more often than the rest of the population, have a clearer mind and a better view into reality.... Maybe the anti-gaming agenda is a 21st century digital book burning of sorts.

@RR529 My first reaction was to think that wasn't the case, and yet, when I think about it more, there's a lot of reason not to doubt that claim, at least back when COD had a single player story. Maybe not as much these days when it's all multiplayer. But when I think back to COD Black Ops II where it had characters that were slightly more than references to sitting cabinet holders, it's a little awkward. And there was, in the 90's or early 00's Americas Army a (mediocre) online multiplayer game actually developed by the US Army, we know for certain the Army, at least, does have an interest and has had actual budget/activity in the video games-as-propaganda arena. And as the article mentions government funded entertainment as propaganda goes back at least to WWII in film and television.

It seems believable overall, though the article takes an extremist, staunchly biased view against US policy as well, so it's one of those things you have to view through the lens of "this is article is also a propaganda piece by an opposition writer." Still, we've been given plenty of reason to believe there's truth in the claim. Not least of which is the credits reel for COD and the like that usually have active-duty armed forces members in the credits. Granted, they are ostensibly there the same reason Nintendo would have people on set for a Mario film - trademark and brand identity management and to make sure their image isn't getting tarnished in any way.

OTOH, Activision is an interesting case. With Tencent's stake in them, they are also in the burgeoning (along with hollywood) market of selling China's propaganda, as well.... Figuring out who's shilling for whom could be an industry all unto itself!

I left my iPad at my brother's home and I probably won't have for like a whole week.

This is the worst thing that could possibly ever happen 😫

Also the flight back home was at five am which was not nice... But at least they gave us free potato chips and beverages, which is a rarity.

I just noticed Best Buy is now referring to their employees as "Blue Shirts". Can't tell if this is now equating them to "Brown Shirts" as in Nazis, or "Red Shirts" as in Star Trek ensigns that are guaranteed to die within 1 hour.

It does not make Best Buy employees seem very approachable, either way....

@NEStalgia So, you disagree with me about the people wanting a war point, when you actually agreed with me earlier, AND I repeated your own point back to you? (the point about the public not wanting to be in the war themselves, which kind of WAS the whole point, from my side anyway)

And the meddling is also just that: meddling. You may have a different understanding of it, or see it as "balancing of powers" but the ironic thing of that kind of thinking is that even the balancing of powers thing is meddling, because regardless of what the underlying reason is, neither side really has any business being there of their own accord. It's just because of all the previous meddling, already done in bygone decades, that there's stakes and lines in the sand to be defended, some even imaginary, as long as it deters the "enemy"...

And no, looking at cases like Iraq isn't too soon at all. The truth is out there: there were no "weapons of mass destruction", so we had no business being there, period. Once again, a "secure the resources and/or lines in the sand" kinda war, all under the guise of a more "plausible" sounding excuse that might soothe the less informed masses.

EDIT:
Mind you, I'm not saying that I don't understand these things going on, or why they are happening, but that doesn't take anything away from the original cause of them now being "necessary", to maintain whatever stalemate or balance needed.

@NotTelevision There are indeed worse problems to have, but having hundreds of tractors camping out on your front lawn, isn't actually a picture that you'd want, as a nation's government, especially if they're loudly protesting for most of the day...

The thing wasn't that the government is doing too much about greenhouse gasses, though: it's that they're putting too much of an uneven amount of stress on certain sectors, farmers being one of them, so measures are far stricter for them, with far more severe consequences, hence the protests.

@Tyranexx Well, there you go. Any improvement is still good, no matter if it's baby steps or giant leaps. There's no time frame in which you need to get to a certain point, unless it's what you yourself want to achieve.

@Zuljaras Well, no offense, but I couldn't disagree more. Some of them may actually have a point or two, most just see an angry parade with torches and pitchforks, and decide to join it, because it's the cool group thing to do...
Seriously, no normal article gets THAT many comments, AND has them all making sense or being valid, so there's definitely a LOT of sheep in there.

@Vinny Yay! Endless Ocean. I will DEFINITELY agree with you on those games. Would be nice to see some HD re-imaginings of those games. Or perhaps a third game in the series.

@Eel You seem to be quite prone to losing/leaving behind quite a few things of late. Becoming a bit absent-minded, my friend?

Becoming absent-minded? It's just my default setting.

@Eel If I were you, I'd put bluetooth stickers on EVERYTHING, then...

@Eel Yuck. I would take a red eye if I absolutely had to, but it would be a last resort. I am NOT a morning person, nor do I sleep well on any type of transportation.

@NEStalgia I like to think the overall majority of users online are reasonably moderate people when it comes to a lot of views and that those who slide way in one direction or another on the political spectrum are just a very vocal minority. I think too this site with its slightly different implementation of how upvotes and downvotes work doesn't lend as much to groupthink as other, larger site like Reddit and YouTube. I'm not totally against voting tools, but like with nearly everything else under the sun it's definitely subject to abuse.

Another danger is that people like mentally sorting others not in their "group" on an issue so to speak into more extreme groups that they don't (in most cases) belong to. Humans seem to like being tribal.

There's also a lack of constructive debate and discussion in most places online. In most cases it devolves into insults and deliberate trolling, only stoking the ire of another. Nothing constructive there. A waste of time and brainpower. What's funny is that some people use their actual names on platforms like Facebook and still have no problem with hurling inflammatory comments.

@ThanosReXXX Slow and steady wins the race! I'm not about to jump into any celebration as the de facto speaker/host, but I'm gradually improving.