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.
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Tomorrow is the release date of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. Incidentally, on the very same day the fan-game Yasuke Simulator will be released as well, which is generating some buzz in reprehensible corners of the Internet:
I’ve heard different things recently about certain investors getting really pissed and wanting to sue for being mislead, to Ubisoft secretly approaching other foreign investors for funding, to them possibly selling off their IPs and disbanding as a company. Whatever the case is, it’s not looking very good for them. From what I understand they’ve just had too many commercial failures in the past 5 or so years. Ass Creed BBC numbers aren’t necessarily bad, but also not nearly enough to necessarily justify moving forward all things considered.
Ubisoft has lost about 3/4 of its market value in the last few years. If I was an investor, I would be furious. Ubisoft dug its own grave, doubling down when the “modern audience” did not show up in meaningful numbers. Now that USAID is gone, they do not even get any astroturfed support anymore either.
Is your minimal game ebook still relevant today?
Yes, I still consider it relevant.
Just to let you know Sleazy, but this link has become non-functional:
https://blog.aaronsleazy.com/index.php/2020/04/14/out-now-ebook-online-game-the-no-nonsense-guide-to-getting-girls-on-dating-sites-and-apps/
Fixed.
Hope to see all the content on this blog restored sooner rather than later. But if you can for now, could you please restore the thread where me and GoodlookingandSleazy were talking about Fred Ettish? (UFC 2 fighter), and the other thread where I mentioned being “Kindred Spirits”?
Out of all the folks on this blog, GLAS is whom I relate to the most. thank you Aaron for having provided us a platform to have some of these deep conversations.
Anyway, will be off to a cousin’s birthday party. be back!
I will look into this later.
Here are the restored threads: Open Thread #334, Open Thread #407.
Thank you, Aaron!
Trump shut down the Department of Education, thus delivering yet another blow to the Deep State:
https://archive.ph/285B4
The title of the executive order is great, “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities”. It hits the nail on its head as the ED, despite its thousands of employees and hundreds of billions in budget every year, has not improved education in the US at all. Quite the contrary has happened, which was arguably its intention, following the leftist agenda of dumbing down the population.
While this may not directly interest most goys who read this blog, maybe there are parallels to the straight scene and hustler women extracting cash from drunk guys…..
https://www.reddit.com/r/AMA/comments/1jhqo1r/19_m_currently_working_a_48_hour_shift_in_a_male/
I just completed Final Fantasy II. I played the Origins version for the PS1 – quite acceptable graphics, even the mid 90s standard CGI cutscenes are okay, but they do look a bit cheesy being shoehorned in with the 16/32 bit game. If you’ve got an actual budget, the pixel remaster would probably be the best way to go – I’ve played FF1 in this version, quite good.
I can fully understand why many consider this entry a bit of a low point for the early FF series. The elimination of the usual levelling system and instead every single stat being levelled up individually is very different and can easily be frustrating. Many will definitely find it tedious making sure they use every spell in their arsenal at least once per battle in order to power up. You can even attack your own fellow team members in order to increase your stats quicker. Although the key stat you should be focusing on is evasion – that way if an opponent can’t even hit you, you don’t need to obsess over building a high HP.
The story is quite standard – evil empire taking over the world, only three chosen ones stand in their way. Yes, your party is quite often only three members, but occasionally a fourth character will join. Just don’t go wasting too much equipment and spells on them that you can’t spare, because most of them are only with you for a limited time. First appearance of chocobos – handy but very underutilised. There’s the ship and the airship, but personally I think you get both of these way too late in the game to have any real fun with them. And the dungeons are objectively awful – multi level dead ends, empty rooms with sky high encounter rates.
All that being said, despite the game’s obvious flaws, I personally loved it. But that’s just me – I don’t mind the grinding in RPGs. I like planning out my grinding sessions – making sure I’ve got enough phoenix downs and cabins. Hunting out areas with the toughest monsters to help level up quicker. Vampiric monsters are quite handy in this game, because they drain a good chunk of your character’s HP and MP – thus a good way to level up these stats.
If you want to delve deep into Final Fantasy lore, and you have a high amount of patience, give Final Fantasy II a shot.
I have not come across a lot of praise for the first two Final Fantasy games online, so thanks for sharing your experience. Final Fantasy III got some attention as it received a comparatively high-profile remake for the Nintendo DS many years ago. Overall, the classic RPG formula has fallen out of favor, albeit there seems to have been a bit of a revival recently. Dragon Quest XI fully embraces it, but Dragon Quest XII was announced to change the battle system. The Atlus RPG Metaphor: ReFantazio is a following a traditional turn-based formula. I know virtually nothing about this game, though.
I am keen to check out the Dragon Quest franchise in its entirety. It looks like there are some decent remakes of the earlier games, which is a relief because the original NES versions of these games can be quite a chore to play through. There are quite a few titles on the Super Nintendo I still want to play – the Star Ocean series, Chrono Trigger.
Metaphor: ReFantazio looks interesting. Looks like it has an alternating day and night system, which would be interesting to see play out in a turn based RPG as opposed to action RPGs like Legend of Zelda and Castlevania that have had day and night systems in many entries.
I just came across this utterly reprehensible video in which an Indian who escaped to the West berates his own culture:
Some interesting if not bizarre gaming news today: It seems that Metroid Prime 4 will indeed come out this year, at the end of the life span of the Nintendo Switch. Strangely enough, it was announced in 2017, when the Nintendo Switch was initially announced. Back then, some die-hard Nintendo fan boys claimed they would get this console for this game alone. This reminded me of die-hard fans sticking to the failed Wii U console because of the repeatedly delayed Zelda: BotW, which was eventually released for both the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch.
The most bizarre piece of news, however, is that Christiano Ronaldo, the soccer player, will join the cast of the upcoming B-tier fighting game Fatal Fury: City of Wolves, made by SNK. This is the sequel to the B-tier fighting game Garou: Mark of the Wolves, released in 1999. Presumably, the Fatal Fury brand had so little pull that SNK used the Japanese title “Garou” for marketing purposes. This is a game that some people claim to hold in high regards but it really is not that popular, judging, for instance, by player numbers of the Steam rerelease or Fightcade player counts. I would be genuinely surprised if the sequel did not bomb. There has not been another game in this series between 1999 and 2025, which is quite telling. There are multiple generations of gamers who have zero attachment to this franchise and the 1999 crowd is now in its 40s or 50s.
Aaron,
I’m not a fan of gaming, and I’ve never been. Anyways, have you ever thought about building a flight simulator at your house? Have you played Microsoft Flight Simulator?
I do not have the space for such a setup. In terms of size and cost it is probably quite comparable to building a sim-racing rig, which I find marginally more appealing. Flight simulators are too slow-paced for me, but I have spoken to people who enjoy them. It seems the big draw for them is the meditative aspect, basically letting the autopilot take them from A to B while they are only actively involved in some actions like taking off and landing. I recall one guy telling me that he likes flying from London to New York in a flight sim once a week, while he is reading a book or watching TV for most of the time.
I liked the way MP4 came across. It looks like a linear adventure very similar to 1&2 (3 I was unable to get into). I was almost worried that with the huge gaps in development time that they were going for some sort of open world format. The game has probably been completed for a while. I just hope they were able to streamline the game in terms of the monotonously convoluted backtracking aspect of MP1.
Another big surprise is the Gradius Origin collection. It’s been worked on by M2ST, and will even feature a brand new Salamander installment as well as multiple versions of some of the games. For $35 it looks like an awesome deal, plus there are the usual quality of life options available.
The announcement of the Gradius Origins collection also surprised me. As a word of caution, before jumping in I recommend trying out any of the classic games in an emulator first. Gradius may be a classic, but it is a lot different from modern-day bullet hell shmups. In fact, in the shmup community there seems to be little overlap between people who like classic, memorization-heavy shmups like Gradius or R-Type, and fans of bullet hells like Dodonpachi or Crimzon Clover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyBcSuqLo3k
This is how women deal with rejection…not very well. I’ve had a few incidents in my life, but not with as direct of an aggression.
any of you have stories to tell of not responding to a woman’s signals (or even forward advances in rarer cases) and them not reacting well to it?
A scoundrel charges thousands of dollars for “socializer method”
I thought he was a good guy trying to help others, until I found his website.
LOL oh BradP
https://www.ocregister.com/2025/03/22/la-man-gets-3-years-in-prison-240000-fine-for-oc-sober-living-kickback-scheme/
Three years in prison is quite an achievement. Maybe he wishes he had gotten involved in other kinds of crime instead. His case is a textbook example of scammers remaining scammers. They just push different scams. He provides also an example of the past eventually catching up with you. Probably he was so confident that he thought nothing could happen to him. Imagine scamming people for two decades! Surely, it is not much of a stretch that such guys also believe they can scam the government with impunity.
Came across this short Elvis interview and suddenly began pondering how much more stupid interviewers and pop stars have become: https://youtube.com/shorts/6AtCssnom9w?si=t18CrqyvQzRpSvXQ
Here is a video demonstrating good contrast between then and modern time: https://youtu.be/qzYt2SR6z_Q
It it quite incredible how quickly both high-brow and low-brow culture have deteriorated. It just took a few decades each.
I was watching a new video by joeybtoonz a bit ago about Justin Bieber, and though he is a total clown these days joey demonstrates how the disgustingly exploited Bieber must have been. I’ve heard that he was probably raped by Diddy and perhaps passed around at parties. The sad thing is Bieber was being openly harassed and assaulted by old men and women on live TV. He was consistently uncomfortable and just seemed like a normal kid caught up in the limelight.
“It it quite incredible how quickly both high-brow and low-brow culture have deteriorated. It just took a few decades each.”
Total circus.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is hot garbage and anti-consumer. I laughed when they said they wanted $70 for an upgraded version of BotW, which is a ten year old game that costs more now than it did when it came out. There’s a lot that could be said here. There’s a C-button that costs $20 a month to even use. Many “physical” carts are just keys for downloads that may well be inaccessible years down the road once they shut down their servers. The graphics style of their next gen games are just cheap, generic and soulless. Many wii games look more striking in comparison to Donkey Kong Bonanza or Mario Kart World, for example. It’s also laughable that they are charging money for the tech demo that educates you about the system’s features. Nintendo is essentially Japanese Disney now. RIP.
I was quite surprised, and not in a good way, by the Switch 2 reveal as well. The physical releases of BotW and TotK will be Switch (1) carts with a downloadable patch. Had they decided to sell both games on one cart, including BotW DLC, perhaps even for $70, they would have offered tremendous value for money. Mario Kart for $80 is also a bold move. It is their biggest game, so I wonder if it is a good idea to charge so much. Surely, Joe Normie might balk at such a price. The price of the console of $449 reflects inflation to some extent, but the OLED Switch is selling for $349, which is already a pretty high price for a handheld. The comparison with a Steam Deck, at least for technically minded consumers, is not favorable. I have been wondering if Nintendo plans to keep selling the OLED Switch for $349 in parallel to the Switch 2. If that was the case, then I could better understand the price.
The Switch 2 presentation was well made, opening with their biggest title (Mario Kart World), highlighting extensive third-party support, including some huge games like Elden Ring. Granted, it is a three-year old game at this point, but as it is so long, it fits the handheld format well. There was a bizarre game with basketball players in wheelchairs that looked like a chore to play. It may end up being Nintendo’s biggest flop in years. At least it will not cost them a lot of money, considering the low-budget nature of that work. I also liked that Nintendo took a page out of Sony’s playbook and got From Software to create an exclusive title for them, but this strategy did not work so well on the Switch, where the Platinum Games exclusive Astral Chain was quite a disappointment. The new Donkey Kong 3D game seems to target the short attention-span crowd, with extremely bright colors and constant visual feedback regarding the various gems you collect. There is some buzz around this game online, but to me it seems to be made for children more than adults.
“I also liked that Nintendo took a page out of Sony’s playbook and got From Software to create an exclusive title for them, but this strategy did not work so well on the Switch, where the Platinum Games exclusive Astral Chain was quite a disappointment.”
Good point. Also relevant is the Bayonetta 3 exclusive. Apparently, if you own BotW or TotK, for example, you can fork over cash (I’m hearing around $30) for what is essentially a patch that makes the game run at a higher resolution and frame rate. Imagine if PC games charged you for patch updates. It’s also concerning the amount of shills that are willing to accept being exploited by Nintendo. However, I do sense a ton of backlash as well.
With Trump’s tariff wars, releasing a new console in a few months is probably not the best choice, but business leaders surely did not expect that he would bat so hard for America and actively work towards dismantling globalization. In particular charging $80 for Mario Kart World in such a macroeconomic environments seems ill-advised. However, Nintendo has a history of backtracking if the market does not agree with their pricing. For instance, the GameCube was sold for $99 within less than two years (and people still did not buy it). The Nintendo 3DS also got a significant price reduction, a few months after launch, going from $249 to $169. If the Switch 2 does not get the initial adoption Nintendo expects, they will most likely start selling it for less. However, anytime this happens, a console or handheld system still ends up underperforming, at least on a relative scale.
Nintendo apparently really wants to keep the Switch around, as I had speculated:
https://archive.ph/dMhUj
This is what the NOA president had to say, channeling Xbox executive Don Mattrick:
They’re like, “could you peasants please buy off the rest of our old stock. We definitely promise not to address the joystick lag.”
In light of Nintendo’s recent showcasing of their greed, apparently Valve will straight up replace your Steam Deck OLED even if you broke it while opening it up to perform surgery: https://youtube.com/shorts/sJyQ0XVO0tI?si=FmXbu0hdn7VnRfD2
This may be the case for now. I recall reading a few years ago that there was a shoe brand that offered lifetime warranty, no question asked. Their customers used to be loyal and honest, so they did not abuse the policy when their shoes broke down after many years of use. However, at some point, Zoomers got wind of this and abused this policy so much that it had to get cancelled, after decades. Similarly, I can imagine a video like the one above to inspire some well-adjusted and valuable members of society to smash their Steam Deck for giggles because they expect a free one from Valve. I do not think that Valve ever acknowledged this policy. If they had done that, it likely would no longer exist by now.
I feel like with most things that Steam will decline noticeably, if not significantly at some point. I’m just enjoying it while it lasts. A possible Valve made console or significantly more powerful handheld is probably about the only gaming device I can see myself purchasing in the future. That way I can keep my library of games intact and continue having free online perks.
I would be interested in a new version of the Steam box. The Steam Deck already has the advantage that it provides a static target for developers. It cannot be properly used as a desktop replacement. If Valve offered a sleek small-form-factor PC that is likewise aimed at budget gaming, e.g. targeting 1080p at medium setting at 60 fps for most titles, that would sound pretty good to me. I have looked into getting a new PC for TGM4, which does not have high hardware requirements. If you put together a PC, you easily end up with a bill of $800 to $1000, which gives you a mid-market experience. However, even small PC cases take up a lot of space. For my purposes, such PC would be both over-specced and occupy too much desk or floor space. (I currently run TGM4 on an old laptop I had lying around.)
A used Mac Mini with an Intel processor would work very well for me, but then I end up paying $300 for a box to play TGM4. It will not be good for much else. Unfortunately, the current version of this game cannot be run on an Apple-silicon Mac Mini, which was possible with an earlier version via some translation layer. If that issue gets fixed again, I could look for a used Mac Mini with an M1 chip or so, which would cost about as much as an Intel Mac Mini, yet be a lot more powerful and would probably be good enough to be my main desktop computer.
“If Valve offered a sleek small-form-factor PC that is likewise aimed at budget gaming, e.g. targeting 1080p at medium setting at 60 fps for most titles, that would sound pretty good to me.”
Yeah, exactly. I know you’ve been gaming with that older laptop that was gifted to you. What’s the motivation to upgrade exactly? TGM4 doesn’t look very graphically demanding.
Despite PC gaming costing anywhere from $800 and up to get into, there is a lot of great to be made in favor of it. One is that you can potentially save a lot of money for game utilizing sales or free giveaways. AAA games get given away such as Death Stranding all the time, as you know. A Switch 2 might only run you around $500, but 10 years from now BotW is still going to cost a premium with very meager sales dips peppered in here and there. Not to mention online services for consoles add up over their lifespan. Even with accessories, and 8bitdo Ultimate 2 will run you $60 compared to the new Switch pro controllers that are supposed to be around $90.
TGM4 itself is not graphically demanding and runs on old hardware very well. However, this particular laptop now has two more years under its belt and it is breaking down. The battery is in a bad shape, the keyboard does not work properly (this was already a problem when I got it but it got worse), and sometimes it just randomly shuts down. I am hesitant to sit down for a serious gaming session because it may get cut short anytime. Gaming is not a high priority for me at the moment but at some point I will have to replace this device.
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_banners/1675335854376509440/1688269804/1500×500
Do you guys consider self-deprecating jokes to be a no-no?
Not especially. A good time to use self-deprecating humor is often when someone teases or even tries to humiliate you. You can just agree with what they’re saying and take it to the extreme.
@PN: in that context, yes but, with women? I don’t know, they’re very unpredictable, they could as well take it the same way they do when you “open up” and “share” your weaknesses with them, which is to say not good at all.
Hmm, those are different things though. If a chick is busting your balls you can definitely use self-deprecating humor. It just comes off as a joke and you move on.
I don’t know about the Bruce Lee quote. He was known to be hot tempered and provoke people, and he also was having an affair before he worked himself up so much that he died from hyperthermia, which is silly.
For context, I work in an environment where there are lots of women so telling them to stfu is usually not a good idea. However, there have been times where I wasn’t in the mood to hear that shit from a chick I was banging and go daddy mode on her ass. They get upset and mope about it for a bit and then wish to please you soon after.
“I don’t know about the Bruce Lee quote. He was known to be hot tempered and provoke people”
Yeah, Bruce Lee was far from a saint, and far from the invincible fighter that fanboys and mistaken normies make him out to be. Bruce Lee in his prime would have a very difficult time fighting against the average amateur MMA fighter in his weight class today.
but credit where credit is due. While there is some dispute about whether or not he deserves the title of being the “Father of MMA”, he definitely helped popularized cross-training and that no single martial arts style has the answer to everything.
I think it is better to avoid them. They surely work a lot better in movies than in real life.
I agree with PN. It can be a good way of taking the air out of what may appear to be a good joke. You disarm them and supercede them at the same time. But you need the gift of timing.
Apprently Van Damme is in trouble with Romanian police for banging trafficked whore. If he was engaging in paid sex activities then it’s highly possible he didn’t realize they were the alleged victims of trafficking, so who knows what’s going on. I like the guy but I do not put it past him to have sex with prostitutes as he used to have a massive cocaine addiction :
https://www.euronews.com/culture/2025/04/03/jean-claude-van-damme-accused-of-having-sex-with-victims-of-sex-trafficking
Van Damme comes across as a guy with poor decision-making ability: cocaine addiction, five marriages, whoring in shady countries. The proposal to come to Romania to bang some whores should have set off some alarm bells in his head.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IKDfyhaS_zs
This is the kind of reaction women make when a Chad is walking down the street.
Probably useful to see for yourself IOIs
Aaron, is it possible for you to mass restore any subject/topic that AlekNovy commented on? The discussions with him were the most interesting, and most educational. i.e. Long term vs Short term mating, False positives, the “levels” for appropriate escalation, my own discussion with him about the topic of “fat acceptance” (Phil Elmore and Bigal2k6 for example have some pretty reasonable, if not outright insightful, takes. They just often get shat on without being given a fair shot because of negative-halo based on their appearance. This isn’t to say that I like or agree with everything they say or write though. I wouldn’t recommend people train with/under Elmore or make him their guru even though I do like some of his takes on the topic of martial arts and self-defense), etc.
Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Alek in awhile. Hope he’s doing great.
I like to imagine Alek’s business investments have all come to fruition and he’s kind of living a semi-playboy lifestyle by now. Way to busy to address us autists right now.
I was supposed to reply to this much earlier, but ended up forgetting till now. I do hope Alek’s living his dreams right now. He deserves it for all the charity and insight he has provided for us throughout the decades, alongside dismantling the goddamn gaslighting mainstream society feeds us that we have a duty to be cannon fodder. Fuck that.
Aaron, according to Tech Lead the US may have really screwed itself with the new tariffs policy. Talks about bringing manufacturing jobs to America may prove futile due to low education levels and high minimum wage. Even if they manage to do so the tariffs could just expire once Trump is out and then the US has wasted billions in infrastructure. China considering banning Hollywood films etc, what’s to stop them from simply creating and manufacturing their own products? Tech could collapse if people simply refuse or are unable to purchase $3,000 i phones and $5,000+ laptops.
This is a pretty fatalistic view. Do you perhaps have a counter perspective? You mentioned the disruption of globalization.
I find it difficult to answer this question because I consider it highly likely that Trump is using high-pressure tactics, without the intention of following through. These tariffs may thus just silently go away after six to eight months. Also, Trump may underestimate how long it takes to build up the manufacturing base of the country. I have a hunch that the ultimate goal may be to get better terms, i.e. make countries like China pay 10 to 15% in tariffs while the US exports their products for free.
Thanks for the reply. Assuming that is the goal minimum then the whole situation has caused a lot of FUD. Probably most amusingly is aging Boomers fearing their 401Ks will not recover. As far as I’m concerned they should just “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”