Off Topic Discussion Megathread

[Thaciscokidd]

No sooner that we talk about it, it seems that Maggs either quit or was fired,depending on where you get your information, from the KoTOR Remake and joined Wizards of the coast.

[Kolsykol]

No sooner that we talk about it, it seems that Maggs either quit or was fired,depending on where you get your information, from the KoTOR Remake and joined Wizards of the coast.

Lol WoTC is not surprising at all.
It's quite amazing and sad at the same time how people like this can just keep getting hired for these big jobs.
The infestation at WoTC is VERY deep.

I still dunno what happened with Vampire Bloodlines 2, not sure if it got cancelled or what I was really looking forward to it tho Bloodlines 1 was a great RPG and they got the guy who wrote and directed it I believe.
But then he got fired and they had hired some rando Rock Paper Shotgun journalists to write for the game <_<.
It's not even that uncommon it seems that game journalists get hired as writers in games...

Rock Paper Shotgun btw is the same outlet that were invited to one of the Fanfests and the guy from the site who went there asked some rly dumb questions about brothels at the QnA and his entire article was extremely derogatory and just mocking the whole event.
I dunno why so much of the Western industry is such a circus.

[Vyrerus]

Lol WoTC is not surprising at all.
It's quite amazing and sad at the same time how people like this can just keep getting hired for these big jobs.
The infestation at WoTC is VERY deep.

I still dunno what happened with Vampire Bloodlines 2, not sure if it got cancelled or what I was really looking forward to it tho Bloodlines 1 was a great RPG and they got the guy who wrote and directed it I believe.
But then he got fired and they had hired some rando Rock Paper Shotgun journalists to write for the game <_<.
It's not even that uncommon it seems that game journalists get hired as writers in games...

Rock Paper Shotgun btw is the same outlet that were invited to one of the Fanfests and the guy from the site who went there asked some rly dumb questions about brothels at the QnA and his entire article was extremely derogatory and just mocking the whole event.
I dunno why so much of the Western industry is such a circus.

Part of Western culture in recent decades has been for journalists to insert their personal beliefs/takes/thoughts into their work, rather than work from an objective foundation. In fact, I'd go as far as saying it's been part of Western culture in recent decades to insert personal belief into everything, especially if it's antithetical to so called traditional values.

It's a hard charge waving the banner of progress, but what it really is, is a hard charge to societal destabilization. It gets these people hired because it creates a buzz, out of which can come really good or really bad PR. The buzz makes money either way.

Now, I'm not saying this is the first time artists and writers inserted themselves into their works. Oh heavens, no. It is the first time that all subtlety has been stripped away, and so instead of a thought provoking masterpiece, you get an attempt at thought-control via entertainment medium. And far more fiction that's just fan fiction, rather than crafted fiction. That is to say... look at one of the newer comics of Superman. They made Superboy or Superman from one of the multiverse Earths bisexual and an activist. He has kissing scenes with his boyfriend in the comic, and the boyfriend happens to look like the comic's author to a T, at least at time of writing.

Basically, a lot of Western media has been co-opted by activism of all shapes and sizes. The goal then becomes message first, entertainment second. Which kills entertainment value. Nothing wrong with what's being presented, merely how it's being presented. The same messages could be inserted behind and secondary to the entertainment, as they should be.

Unfortunately, then, the writing would have to stand on merit rather than on how much buzz it creates. How many clicks it generates. That's the way I see it, anyway.

[Lauront]

The worst for me are those sites that, instead of just having a question/answer format, have to try spin narrative, where you're trying to figure out what was actually said and what is the author's (often heavy) spin on it.

[Kolsykol]

Last thing I'll say about it since the whole thread should probably not be about it xD.
But I think there's quite a lot of gaslighting going on about this stuff too and people should call it out more often and not fall for it.
Obviously if you have a problem with stuff going on in the LOTR Rings of Power show for example there's going to be actual racists who on a very surface level might fall on the same '' side '' as you.
That doesn't mean that everyone who has a problem with it has a problem with it due to racism...

Most of the criticism I've seen makes sense contextually, and it's not about '' these people don't belong in fantasy ''.
I also think a lot of people take issue with the notion that LOTR needs to '' reflect our world '' ( which just means NA, and also for some reason they forget that other minorities exist too... ).
Uum, excuse me.
LOTR is not the real world, I think people want to see Tolkiens world...
If anything I've seen a lot of people annoyed that they don't include Easterlings, because there's a lot of history behind why they aligned with Sauron in the trilogy which would actually have been very interesting to get into and would've added more depth to them for ppl who only know of LOTR from the movies.
Personally I think shedding more light on that and having more sympathetic Easterlings would've been really cool and it also would've been a lot more lore accurate.

It's the same with weird depictions and trying to rewrite European history and folklore.
Like holy hell why not just look outside of Europe and actually tell stories from other continents?
I think it'd be interesting but instead they just pretend like Europe in the medieval ages had the demographics of modern day NA.
I just feel like it's insulting my intelligence and it also makes it feel less real to anyone who's not historically illiterate.
One of my biggest gripes with basically all depictions of the Trojan War for example is that Memnon is always cut.
Why?............. They literally have a character AND AN ENTIRE ARMY right there but instead of depicting him they cut the character and change another o_o.
Dude is pretty important to the story even... He was basically Achilles but on the other side.

The worst for me are those sites that, instead of just having a question/answer format, have to try spin narrative, where you're trying to figure out what was actually said and what is the author's (often heavy) spin on it.

'' People are outraged ''

*Links to two tweets with 0-1 likes each as evidence*

[RobynDaBank]

I finally caved and joined the catgirl crew. Where's my commemoratory catnip?! TBH I don't know why I did it, might just go back after a month or few...

REE, update my portrait, Lodestone! xD

[AlyaNimfa]

I finally caved and joined the catgirl crew. Where's my commemoratory catnip?! TBH I don't know why I did it, might just go back after a month or few...

REE, update my portrait, Lodestone! xD

Funny, I just switched away from cat girl to hyur.

[Vyrerus]

Aww, but Robyn's Au Ra is so cute. I hope the cat girl Robyn is at least half as cute.

[Burmecia]

okok, idea for fashion accessory: ascian glyph



like would-be azem pattern maybe?

[Kolsykol]

I am actually having a mental breakdown for real.
I've lost track of time but I think I've spent like 4 days now trying to clear P3S and EVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY party has either wiped to Darkened Fire which is like the first actual mechanic or failed to kill the big bird adds.
There has been like one or two parties where we got further and in one we got to the tornados but then people had to leave.

But holy hell nothing has made me actually hate people as much as the constant barrage of people joining groups meant for later mechanics with clearly zero experience.
My signature doesn't hold true anymore I am actually just angry.
I feel like I've gone through like 50 food buffs or something and the overwhelming majority of it has just been the first few mechanics.
What upsets me even more is how people are just blatantly lying to our faces, they VERY clearly don't know what they're doing but have a billion excuses why they spent an hour wiping to plumes and wings or why they can't calculate 4+2 or stand on a yellow square.

And here I thought P2S was the worst but nope, this is actually worse.