Open Thread

Open Thread #230

Aaron "Sleazy" Elias

The Open Thread is a place for open discussion among my readers. Post anything you feel like sharing! From now on, the Open Thread will no longer be monthly. Instead, there will be a new Open Thread whenever it is adequate. The stage is yours. Go ahead!

The latest Open Thread is made ‘sticky’ to improve access.

Please consider throwing a few coins into the tip jar, and buy my books! They are great. Your support is greatly appreciated.

28 thoughts on “Open Thread #230”

    1. I’ve sampled it in the past. I never really needed it, it just made “round two” a bit easier.

      I wouldn’t recommend it though. I would always feel incredibly off after taking it – feverish, dizzy, digestive problems. Look who makes it, after all.

      I don’t think the woman in that article really had any idea the guy she hooked up with was on it though.

    2. When I skimmed the article, I had to chuckle upon reading this passage: “Short-term serious side effects include strokes and heart attacks in very rare cases, as well as diarrhoea and gastritis.” Viagra is made by Pfizer, just like the vaxx. As we all know, the leading cause of coincidences is the vaxx. There is also a strange uptick in strokes and heart attack due to blood clots. Surely, it would be completely outlandish to think that the mainstream is pushing Viagra onto young men in order to cover up strokes and heart attacks that were side effects of the vaxx.

  2. Recently I began craving for the new BotW sequel to hit so I could become immersed in a new open world adventure and leave clown world behind for a while. Now that I’ve got some things settled, I compromised and picked up Witcher 3 instead since Zelda has been delayed until Spring. At first I thought I had made a mistake—the controls felt clunky, too many menus, and an overwhelming crafting and progression system.

    I stuck with it for a while and I’m just left extremely impressed. The world is so full of content, and I can’t believe how much quality story and dialogue they managed to put into this game. There’s so much extra lore via the glossary and random books etc. you come across. The soundtrack is also pretty solid, and I haven’t come across any PoC. You even get to bang out sluts and whores.

    I was recently at a buddy’s place and we booted up Cyberpunk 2077 on his PS4. He had gotten the thing for free with a library of games already downloaded onto it. Before we even got passed the prologue where Night City opens up, there were a number of non-game breaking glitches. F.e., gun in hand was invisible, NPCs not loading into cutscenes and effectively being invisible, garage doors not opening during on rails scene so you just phase through them, and so on.

    I soon after found an article on gamespot, I believe, praising CDPR for having hired so much diversity that at some point the entire team consisted of approximately 20% or more women. That’s probably the problem. Now, Witcher 4 is supposedly in development, but I surely can’t imagine it going too well. Witcher 3 has some glitches here and there, and a couple of times I had to re-load a checkpoint to fix the game but it still works extremely well considering how much could go wrong with a game like this.

    The future of gaming looks pretty bleak. I believe Nintendo is making some bad business decision in terms of going woke as of late.

    Reply

    1. The Witcher 3 is probably one of the most content-heavy games ever released. There are also two DLCs, which are meatier than some full-price games. The gameplay is not great, but it is serviceable. There is still nonetheless the aspect that you are playing errand boy for a bunch of bitches for most of the game. You could even make the point that the only thing Geralt does is helping out women. My favorite quests were the ones with the three bog creatures as well as the often praised Blood Baron one, but the side story with the elves also left an impression on me.

      I think that CDPR has completely lost its way. They wanted to release a “next-generation update” for The Witcher 3 in early 2021, and this comparatively straightforward project has been getting delayed over and over. I do not think that The Witcher 4 will be particularly good. It will certainly be praised by the gaming press for the favorable depiction of blacks and the comprehensive inclusion of pink-haired trannies in the game’s medieval world, though.

      I am currently in limbo myself so my PS3 and monitor are packed up. One game I liked quite a bit and intend to get back to was Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen. You can find it on PS4 and Steam, too. The atmosphere is great, and it seems to be quite a power fantasy for the player. Otherwise, I am playing a few arcade games in MAME quite regularly, which is great fun.

    2. Speaking of the delays of BOTW 2: I used to believe that delays are just the result of bad resource allocation, or management realizing that they bit more than they can chew, so they invest some extra time in the product. Sometimes, there is surely also feature creep. However, some time ago I skimmed leaked marketing materials of some company, which stated that the early announcement of some game and subsequent delays as part of their marketing, the goal being increased exposure. Rockstar may have done this with GTA V back in 2011 or so as well.

      In the past, Nintendo also strategically spread out their releases. There have been reports of some games having been completed for a year or more, but held back in order to not cannibalize sales. This was more of an issue during the NES days, though, when they had a boatload of first and third-party games to release. Also, the successor of the Switch is surely in the works, so BOTW 2 may be pushed back a bit longer to make it a cross-gen release, just like the first BOTW.

    3. I picked up the complete edition of The Witcher 3 and have both DLC packs, so this game should keep me pretty busy for a while. In regards to the game being an bitch boy errand simulator, I sort of get the sense that a huge portion of the player base felt an affinity towards such behavior. Perhaps it’s not such a bad route to take as a developer? Honestly, my favorite part of the game has been doing contracts and discovering new monsters to beat that are way above my level. Some of the monsters have genuinely freaked me out, like the bride wraith thing and some of those relicts.

      My PS3 power supply (I think) gave out. It was funny because I went to boot it up on the final day before the MGSV servers went down and it simply powers on for a second then fails. I could try swapping it out with a used one on ebay (about 25 USD + shipping), but I figured I’d just take a break from it for a while.

      I’m on the fence about purchasing the physical version of Nier Automata for Switch when it drops. I have about a dozen physical games for the Switch and could easily part with half of them on ebay and not miss them.

      Ah, thanks for mentioning that bit about Nintendo’s marketing strategy. I’ve actually watched some videos that alluded to this. Apparently Nintendo likes to have one Zelda game in the pocket to release every year. Skyward Sword, which came out last year, was reportedly ported, upscaled and ready to ship for several months before it was even announced (don’t quote me on that). And an argument can be made that a BotW sequel coming out this year and having to compete with the likes of Elden Ring for game of the year is not an attractive prospect. So, they could easily have another Zelda port ready to go before the holiday season to rake in easy money before the next big Zelda title.

    4. @Pickernanny
      Be careful with Nier: Automata! The main protagonist is very easy on the eyes, but you may not enjoy the mechanics of the game. There is also quite a bit of boring traversal in the game world.

    1. I remember the extended family tree system in Sims 3 was very flimsy – so that aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces and cousins would forget they were related if they moved house and would flirt with one another.

      I also remember that wokey ad they put out for the series where a black girl bragged about her sim doppelganger hooking up with her real life brother-in-law’s counterpart. There was also a wheelchair bound girl gushing over how the game allowed her to simulate life if she could walk, which I found incredibly sad.

  4. If one (hypothetically speaking) has a daughter,I’m wondering if getting them into Meditation early on will help to prevent Attention Whoring tendencies (which seems to be the bane of most attractive women’s existence) later in life. What do you guys think?

    Reply

    1. I think it would be more effective if you ensure that her exposure to degeneracy is greatly limited. This may include not buying her a smartphone, controlling what she can look at online, prohibiting social media use, and living in a more rural community. Instead of wasting her time by maintaining a degenerate lifestyle, she should pursue some other goals, which will build her personality and make her a more attractive partner for marriage. At the very least, she should learn one instrument, and at a bare minimum, she should be an excellent cook.

    2. I think the chance of successfully doing that without living in a community which shares your values is slim. As far as I know only such communities are religious ones.

      As a tangent, I always considered it interesting what made intellectuals and speakers like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens et al. consider religion as the main barrier of human progress, so much so that they made it their life’s mission to oppose religion. After all, we can see that as Christianity is slowly fading away the peak degeneracy is on the rise.

    3. @ Skepdick: It is interesting to note, that the Christian confessions, which were the result of the Grest Schism of 1054, Roman-Latin catholicism and its dialectic twin, protestantism are indeed dwindling. The Church of the First Millenium, Christian Orthodoxy, on the other hand is well and strong.

    4. I’m not particularly acquainted with Orthodox Christianity but I always assumed it is not doing much better considering Eastern Europe also has problems with low fertility rates, just like the West. Orthodox Churches are specific in that that they are state sponsored and thus anti-religion influences are being softly suppressed.

      I did hear about several cases of people converting to Orthodoxy, which could be a larger trend, perhaps because Westerners are getting disappointed with mainstream denominations and are looking for novel alternatives.

  5. Hi All

    Could use some help here. I’m 27, 6’2, 118kg at about 15% bodyfat give or take. (No, I’m not natural) Despite having had some ‘small’ experience with girls (girlfriend at high school, one-night-stand and a 5 year relationship with a beautiful half-asian girl), I haven’t been too successful since my last breakup a year and a half ago. I work some pretty reasonable hours and train 6 days a week (2-a-days, weights morning, cardio afternoon) and am often exhausted by the weekend. As such, I ask girls out at the gym during the week (when I think there’s interest) but they almost always have boyfriends. I recently got ghosted by a young 20 year old who I guess just wasn’t interested in that way despite us talking for an hour in the gym. I know it’s a numbers game but can’t exactly ‘shit where I eat’ all the time.

    I’m wondering if it’s just a case of me not going out enough. I can talk to anyone due to my profession and my confidence and libido is pretty much sky-high all the time from the testosterone. (Not always a good thing) Any advice for where I’m going wrong? Have I screwed myself from being a gym rat too long? I’ve read minimal game as well.

    Cheers

    Reply

    1. I think that you maneuvered yourself too much into a very particular niche. Women, in general, like men who are in shape, but the really buff look is only in demand by a small subset. That being said, those women really dig that look. I think your best bet is to go where a lot of people gather, be it clubs, bars, conferences, meetups, or the beach, and approach more women. Also, women probably very obviously signal to you that they are interested.

    2. Have you added any male friends to your network as a result of all that gym time? Bangs can come from just about anywhere if you’re open to it. Maybe, you’re already doing this, but if not, expand your socializing while at the gym to include some of the guys, and maybe some of those guys will have a girlfriend who is sympathetic to you, and will introduce you to her friends, have access to events/parties where you can meet some chicks, etc.

      I would think that 12 workouts a week would result in not having much time for this kind of thing, so maybe base your social around that a bit more killing 2 birds with one stone?

      I also second Aaron’s beach/pool suggestion. Get a tan, and go someplace where it’s acceptable to hit on chicks while shirtless, since you possess the physique you describe.

    3. Thanks guys. Sounds like I simply need to put myself in situations to meet more women.

      Aaron – Would you advise cutting down and maintaining a leaner look to accompany this. I’ve been ultra-low bodyfat many times and I was in the best shape of my life when I met my ex-girlfriend. While I don’t ‘look my best’ at this current weight due to a bit of bloat and water retention, I would still consider myself leaner than 98% of the male population.

      Also, yes – women will park themselves at a bench right next to mine when the whole row is free. A girl the other day sat at one right next to me and just stared while I trained arms. It was pretty awkward, actually. Another will go on the stairmaster directly behind me wagging her ass (no one else is around) and look over her shoulder to see if I’m looking. Yet I get to talking to this same girl and oh, she’s just moved in with a partner.

      Herk – wouldn’t consider them ‘friends’ but I do know quite a few members at this point. (Men and women) I’ve really focused on this this year just to increase my confidence and social skills more as I know it’ll carry-over. Even doing the grocery shopping I’ve gotten to know just about everyone there. Unfortunately no ‘connections’ like that yet.

    4. @Shepherd
      Cutting down will probably help but as you are roiding, this may give you an even more unnatural look. Also, there is another aspect to the girl telling you that she just moved in with a guy. Some women reveal early on that they have a boyfriend but they do this to create plausible deniability, i.e. if she ends up sleeping with you, it is because of you seducing her. In this scenario, she is not to blame at all because she told you that she has a boyfriend, yet you moved in on her anyway.

  6. We’ve touched on the issues of drugs and addiction, but I would like to raise another point. It’s widely believed that certain drugs are better because they are not physically addictive. “Only” psychology addictive.” My counter to that is that while physical addiction is more nasty on the body, it goes away completely once the addict sobers up completely. Psychological addiction really never goes away. Addiction is addiction. Compartmentalizing it doesn’t help.

    Reply

    2. I think highly physically addictive drugs are also psychologically addictive as well. After the physical withdrawals are over, post acute withdrawal systems can ebb and flow for several months or even years afterwards as the brain attempts to heal from the former abuse. This often causes a myriad of psychological symptoms such as depression and anhedonia.

    3. Agreed. Which is why psychological addiction needs it’s proper place instead of being overlooked by promoters of certain drugs.

    4. Which drugs are you referring to? Also, I think the more recent push on psychedelics is pretty misguided. People claiming that it cures all sorts of mental ailments, and even proponents claiming that you have to megadose it to permanently cure addictions, anxiety and even stuttering etc.

  7. Do you guys consider a “Baby Face” (youngish looking) to be a good thing for a man? Intuition tells me yes because,assuming the man doesn’t let himself go (and rapids up the aging process),they will grow into it as they get older. Being in your mid 30’s while looking as if you’re in your early 20’s is probably one of the best things you can ask for. (even if women might be more dismissive of you in your younger age)

    Reply

    1. There is a difference between having a “baby face” and looking young for your age. The former implies a lack of masculine features, which is often a disadvantage. Guys with a baby face grow into adults with doughy features.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.