Off Topic Discussion Megathread

[Vahlnir]

Kinda frustrating and disappointing to see so many people defend Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.
I do understand getting upset about it but people are unironically making the argument that the joke was the '' initial assault '' and that the slap was in retaliation ( retaliation is illegal in most civilized places of the world... ).
Will seem'd to have laughed at it until he noticed his wife was upset and then went up to slap him even.

It's cliche but lets be real here if Chris had been a female comedian people would've lost their shit it would've become an insane controversy.
I do think it's worse because of the physical difference, even if Chris is a smaller guy than Will.
But just because it'd be worse doesn't mean it isn't wrong in this case and it's disappointing to see people who otherwise parade around as progressive just laugh hysterically and make excuses for a man being attacked.

But yeah... Just the response to it is really frustrating, everyone is treating it like a joke and/ or are making excuses for why it was justified.
I dunno why it's so damn hard to just say that it was wrong.
Like even if you think it's funny you can still admit that it was wrong.

The joke was in poor taste, but...that's also part of being a pro stand up comedian who's got a vulgar side, and most of them do. They're gonna roast people left and right, and it IS going to be offensive. It's just a thing. lol Most celebrities take it with grace and move on with their lives. The biggest part of comedy is being able to laugh at oneself. Will's wife is also kind of a horrible person, so there's that. Will Smith did not conduct himself in a respectable manner (and honestly, he hasn't for a while now), so this is entirely on him. I fully support defending the honor of one's significant other, but this was not the time or place for a physical altercation. Will could have pulled him aside after the show and said "man, that wasn't cool" and that would have been the end of it. Personally, I'd pay good money to hear what Chris Rock was holding back when he said "Oh I could... *shakes head* nah" but then stopped himself to keep the show rolling. He clearly had at least a few jokes in his comedic arsenal that he was dying to use. But he did handle the situation like a champ, so good on him. He's a better man than I. I lost respect for Will Smith, but I now feel a lot more for Chris Rock. It's a shame too. I practically grew up watching Will Smith's movies and such. This situation would have been akin to watching Robin Williams punching George Carlin over an offensive joke. Just...uncalled for, given their professions. Rip both of those guys. At least one of them is probably rolling over in their graves over this.

[VirusOnline]

Kinda frustrating and disappointing to see so many people defend Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.
...
Like even if you think it's funny you can still admit that it was wrong.

Comedy is comedy.
It's sorta like going to Olive Garden and being offended that they served pasta.
The real joke ? Far worse things could have been said about Jada, and everyone in that room and in the world knows that. That's what really got Will.

disgusting behaviour on will's part
everyone's got pain, but you gotta be able to laugh at it
that he couldn't is very revealing of the current situation

[Vahlnir]

The real joke ? Far worse things could have been said about Jada, and everyone in that room and in the world knows that. That's what really got Will.

Chris Rock knew it too, I'm sure. He probably had at least 3 or 4 heavy hitting zingers ready to go in his head but decided it wasn't worth it at that moment. Enough drama had already played out and I doubt he wanted to get slapped again.

[SturmChurro]

I had to look up on YouTube what you all are talking about. Yeah, that is not the way to handle a situation like that, at all, but him and his wife's 'honor' was at stake, so I assume he thought he had to do something.

[RobynDaBank]

I'm not taking a side in the whole Chris Rock/Will Smith debate. Mostly ignorant about the Hollywood world. All I know is that I'm addicted to the memes coming out of it.

[VirusOnline]

I'm not taking a side in the whole Chris Rock/Will Smith debate. Mostly ignorant about the Hollywood world. All I know is that I'm addicted to the memes coming out of it.

I don't follow celebrities, but Smith is on display across all social medias, reddit lurker or not.

And although I do love my memes - it's a big rip.
Imagine being on display, your entire life, all your business, with nowhere to hide, escape. It's driven some very notable people to the cusp of mental breakdowns.
I want to imagine that there's probably an unsaid rule amongst celebrities that this is something known and to be respected and Chris teetered that line a bit too cleverly and Will did himself no favours.

[Kolsykol]

I don't follow celebrities, but Smith is on display across all social medias, reddit lurker or not.

And although I do love my memes - it's a big rip.
Imagine being on display, your entire life, all your business, with nowhere to hide, escape. It's driven some very notable people to the cusp of mental breakdowns.
I want to imagine that there's probably an unsaid rule amongst celebrities that this is something known and to be respected and Chris teetered that line a bit too cleverly and Will did himself no favours.

Will Smith does seem like a genuinely nice person to me, I think he did genuinely snap tho especially with his a bit bizarre love for his family which I don't think is fake or played up for media attention.
When he saw Jada was genuinely bothered by it then it doesn't surprise me too much he'd do what he did.

With that said I do think most of the overly happy and perfect persona is fake when it comes to celebrities and e-celebs and I just find it creepy and inhuman.
It's like when I watch a Youtube video too and there's all this fake hyper ultra positive energy with a HUGE fake smile and fake teeth that have been bleached and they present themselves as these perfect specimen.
What makes it even weirder is that they all talk the same way and have the same mannerisms too it's very weird it's as if they have the same coach or something.

I see this a lot too in American political ads and commercials, it's also a pretty big trope in movies because of the whole '' muh family values '' thing.
They love to shove kids and wives into movies and really ham home how much the protagonists loooooooooves their family and what a great family man he is.
It's just weird, it's so obviously fake and forced and it only makes me feel like people are liars and makes me distrust them.
If someone presents themselves that way all I can think is that they have some serious skeletons in their closet they're trying to obfuscate.

I do sympathize a little in that if celebrities don't present themselves this way they'll get torn to shreds by pathetic media outlets like TMZ and morons on social media.
At the same time it's extremely dehumanizing and weird.
But a lot of people have these extremely unrealistic expectations on other people being perfect as if they themselves are flawless.

I feel like after 9 long years with this game, I'm finally sort of... falling out of love with it. This past month, I've only really logged in for RP and to DM our FC events (both of which I still love doing!). Only attempted to do content and cap tomes for like... 3 days in the middle of it, before I fell off the train again.

I'm just noticing I have more fun playing other stuff, mostly Elden Ring (and now RF5). I log in to FFXIV with the intent to do content, and just find myself exhausted by the thought of it. Between the poor behavior and performance of the playerbase, to how the only somewhat challenging and interesting content is relegated to Savage and Ultimates (things I don't really have time or energy for anymore), to the pitiful state of healers, and topping it off with the future direction of the game... I don't know. I'm just not really happy with it anymore as a game to be played, rather than just a place to hang out with my friends and enjoy fun RP and storytelling.

It isn't even me being burned out; I've routinely taken 'breaks' here and there where I'd just log in to AFK and chat while I played other things on my ps4. This is... different. I just don't feel any real excitement or joy about the future of this game.

I'm hoping all this is just patch lull blues, but eh...

I am still enjoying the game a lot, the problem for me currently is lack of content.
I just do the Savage tier and then I am done for the week, tomestones is whatever I'll do it at some point in the week too.

When the Savage tier is unlocked and you can farm books I'll be doing the fights just for fun and glam, I just wish I could do more runs a week.
I am also looking forward to the new Relic weapons and story too.
But yeah, right now it kinda feels like I just exhaust all content for the week that I have left in one sitting.

[Kaoru_Nagisa]

I am still enjoying the game a lot, the problem for me currently is lack of content.
I just do the Savage tier and then I am done for the week, tomestones is whatever I'll do it at some point in the week too.

When the Savage tier is unlocked and you can farm books I'll be doing the fights just for fun and glam, I just wish I could do more runs a week.
I am also looking forward to the new Relic weapons and story too.
But yeah, right now it kinda feels like I just exhaust all content for the week that I have left in one sitting.

I mean, it isn't that I don't have anything to do. I actually have quite a lot I could/should be doing - leveling alt classes, leveling my alt characters through EW, leveling crafters (again, this time on one singular character instead of spread amongst 3), farming EX modes, etc etc...

I just. Don't feel any strong desire to do any of it? I only feel a marginal tug of insistence that I cap tomes so I'm not super behind in gear when the Alliance raid drops (as I prefer being at my best, including gear-wise, for new content so I'm not a liability to others and also meeting my personal goals), but as I said, I think about logging in to do even just that much and it exhausts the heck out of me to even think about.

I just feel no tug to play XIV anymore when I get home, outside of scheduled RP and our usual event times for my FC.

It isn't even that I dislike the game itself, I guess it's more so the combination of the playerbase getting to the point it is now, and decisions the dev team keeps making (or otherwise, refusing to make where it's desperately needed). EW's story was also a bit of a sore spot; I don't vehemently hate it or anything and still felt emotions during it, but I also see a lot of issues with it being rushed in its pacing and story beats, and it's probably the first expansion since Stormblood that I feel no strong desire to replay immediately.

It's just kind of an odd feeling. This game has been my home for 9 years; it went through college with me, and most of my long-term friends I still have to this day, I met through this game. Feeling this complete apathy, and lack of enjoyment in it, is just a bit upsetting in a way, after all this time.

Ah well. They want this to be a solo-friendly social simulator/second life sort of game, which at least means it'll be a good platform for interactive storytelling and RP with friends. That's the only thing I still find joy in right now when it comes to logging in.

Least me and my FC can still play other stuff (like Elden Ring) together.

[ThivraK]

[...]

I've been playing for way less years than you but honestly, as we've talked extensively over reddit, it's a feeling I too share and it's sad. I met so many nice people throughout this game that didn't interest me at first, plus the story that, despite having boring parts here and there, fully sucked me in, which surprised me myself.

But then, in my eyes, the glaring issues appeared. The community at large enabling toxic behaviour, most of the self-proclaimed nice and welcoming people being the biggest hypocrites I've seen (especially on this forum and reddit), the playerbases performance seemingly plummeting even further before and during EW, more and more people weaponizing the TOS to police the tone of advice and whatnot. And, at least in this forums case, the moderation enabling this hypocrisy as well.

It's only a few levels for the last 5 classes I gotta level but man, the desire I felt to max them out is completely gone vs the desire I had pre-EW, not to mention the lack of desire to play at all? And I know I'm not alone with this in my FC/circle, as not only the savage raiders but also the casual players like me experience more and more "rinhlettes" during their roulettes and are met with hostility* if they try to help

*someone from my circle was genuinely surprised that I tried to help a struggling tank with advice during stone vigil and didn't just pull more for them, as they've not had anybody tried to help them when they picked up the game over a year ago. Imagine a community so deep down into the enabling behaviour and keeping your mouth shut because saying something is seen as a personal attack that it completely stops giving advice altogether

[Kolsykol]

I'm not taking a side in the whole Chris Rock/Will Smith debate. Mostly ignorant about the Hollywood world. All I know is that I'm addicted to the memes coming out of it.

I think some of the memes are funny too, especially the JoJo ones, but yeah I still think that what happened was wrong.
I am just talking about people who are cheering on what happened.
I see a lot of people mocking people pointing it out but probably I have to assume because they know people pointing it out are right and it makes their cheering it on a bit awkward.
But if Chris had been a woman there would've been a complete collective mental breakdown instead of people laughing at the event.

It's especially bizarre when it's people who are otherwise progressive but then suddenly they're cheering on if we are to use such words '' toxic masculinity ''.
I do understand reacting a bit differently because I do think there is a physical difference that does matter, but there's a big insane difference between laughing at what actually happened and even justifying it and how people would react if he had been a woman.
They're the complete opposite reactions and it's kinda disgusting and backwards.