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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One of the people behind the large-scale vandalism targeting Tesla is facing 20 years in prison:
https://archive.ph/W8E7f
It seems that some people need to realize that the world has changed marginally. It is no longer the case that NGOs and the government work hand-in-hand. In the past, the Dems told “activists” to riot, and judges were instructed to treat these criminals like royalty. Today, NGOs still get money in order to send people rioting. However, the current government does not endorse such actions.
Tetris the Grand Master 4 was recently released on Steam, about 20 years after TGM3, and 16 years after a beta of this game was first shown in public. I think it is very good. My big concern was that the focus would be only on speed, which has been the direction in the last three games, but instead there has been a fundamental shift towards adaptability and basic skills. This was unexpected by me, and arguably the entire Tetris community. Arika, the developer, managed to find a way to reintroduce challenge despite the mandated (!) game mechanics having moved towards simplification and reduction of challenge for about 25 years.
Below is a brief video of the difficult new gimmick. Note that this is the most difficult part of the most difficult mode of this game. The other modes basically take you gently from beginner to expert, if you put in the time and effort. There is even a casual mode in which you unlock pictures of waifus.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_tTw-UphIPo
This must come as a pleasant surprise. Have you just been researching the game, or do you plan to get into it someday?
I bought it on release and have played it for a few hours already. My intention is to make TGM4 my main game as soon as I have a proper PC setup again.
Hope you enjoy it. I haven’t played many games since Elden Ring. Tonight I just started DMC1. I’m digging the semi-fixed camera angles and the spooky castle setting. The game has a great atmosphere.
DMC1 really has great atmosphere. You may find the backtracking a bit tedious, though. Last year I played this game for a bit and thought that it had held up quite well, but after taking a break from it a never picked it up again. I did finish it back in the days, though, and it had left a very good impression on me. It put the PS2 on the map in terms of action games.
I personally do not mind the backtracking so long as the setting is compelling. Good examples of this are the early Resident Evil games as well as the RE2 remake. I worry that DMC2 is going to be pretty bad, however.
I always love reminders like this: https://youtube.com/shorts/eE7gEVs8iu8?si=ahFi0gnaJghuyswH
I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced such a submissive look from a woman before. The most I can remember is this almost menacing and adversarial-looking side eye from across the room that just says “it’s on”, but that takes a certain type of chick. I imagine you’d have to really mog a chick for put her in her place like Henry Cavill just did up there.
I came across this Japanese Meme with Trump and Shinzo Abe.
https://www.reddit.com/r/discordVideos/comments/1gusyat/from_the_skies/
African engineering will soon put Japanese and American car manufacturers out of business. Mark my words: https://youtube.com/shorts/3JDG-J7W4Sk?si=yfB-roGs7wAQk7bR
The design is fantastic! I particularly like the ingenuous use of a cheap plastic chair. Some people may be laughing now, but once this guy shows up in his supercar at P. Diddy’s next event, he will have the last laugh. I wonder what this young genius will turn his attention to next. For instance, I would love to see him try his hand on designing modern weapon systems.
My guess is that bright young Africans such as this will be the West’s key to affordable electronics such as phones and laptops in the near future. Just don’t get your device wet as it will become soggy and definitely be a significant electrical shock risk.
@Aaron
Are you being in your sarcastic mood?
Certainly this kid cannot be compared to the old engineer who rebuilt a WW2 (or WW1?) tank that you mentioned a long while ago.
But he was quite bright, probably an exception to the rule in Africa?
Yes, I was joking.
Wanted to show a friend the style of humor on this blog, so I looked for the BCPI (blue pill conformance index) article, but can’t find it.
Is it still on the site?
I just made this post available again, together with its companion piece The Fake Pride of the Blue-Pilled Beta Male.
I know this is a very general and basic question,
But if I want to understand the reasons behind the salary of a job position, in different industries, then what should I look for?
I understand the angle of this blog that many jobs are massively inflated by artificial demands and will be bursted once the market goes belly up.
But even for jobs that are traditionally well-regarded like doctors and engineers, then what factors decide the salary of these jobs?
There are a couple of jobs that I am looking at at USAgov for multilingual personels and I cannot exlain why some only fall into the range of 70,000USD while others are up in the air within 180,000 USD.
I hope those who are more experienced in job-hunting and dealing with HR could relay some insights.
Salary is determined by supply and demand, and political meddling. It is normally not correlated with difficulty or utility for society.
I recently watched the movie House of Gucci, directed by Ridley Scott. It could have been a great movie, but it was the opposite. Jeremy Irons delivered a fantastic performance. Among older actors, he is one of my favorites. However, the main roles were played by two extraordinarily unattractive people, Adam Driver and Lady Gaga. I really wonder why Lady Gaga got to play this major role. Perhaps this was a reward for having pushed degeneracy onto society for so long. She is not only unattractive, she is also a pretty poor actress. Most baffling is that Hollywood managed to make a movie on one of the premier fashion brands, without putting any attractive women in it. There is one showing up as an extra for a few seconds. Every other woman you see in this movie you want to unsee.
I recently watched The Warriors, a decent 1970s action flick, with a surprising amount of depth, if you pay some attention. Most interestingly, the plot of this film has been liberally adapted by John Wick, which is a connection I was not aware of before. As it seems, the more you acquaint yourself with works of the past, the less appealing even the more remarkable present-day films become. We truly live in the age of slop.
Aaron,
I happened to notice that there is a follower on your blog who has a similar username to mine. Is there away to make followers use different usernames, so you guys won’t confuse him with me?
I suppose you are referring to “Cris”. Seeing that the auto-generated avatars look quite different, I hope that it is clear who is who.
Yes, I was referring to Cris.
Hey Aaron, just some more past topics I’d like to request be brought back:
Times when “Buttmonkeys” or “Butt monkey” were mentioned.
I think you were even planning to make a thread to chime in on the subject yourself when I first mentioned and talked about the subject matter. Well, if you still have the time and interest…
Done. This term showed up in the Open Threads #278, #348, and #349. There is an entry in my to-do file on the “buttmonkey” topic but I cannot make any predictions on when I will get around to writing about it.
Honestly, as I look back into my past, had I known back then what I know now, I would have been a lot less of a goody two shoes (I should have realized back then just how little the teachers actually cared about me and that my dad isn’t anywhere near as wise as he was making himself out to be. At least I still eventually fought back against my bullies and at the most important moments. My biggest regret by far is wasting so much of my time and youth in college. I was coping by allowing myself to be prolonged there. If you sent me back in time, I would have asked to be moved to a 2 year vocational course to get into working soon after, and I figure I really want to pursue a prestigious course, have the opportunity to return.) and a lot more of a risk taker. Youth really is the best time to experiment and make mistakes. (obviously with limits. I’m not suggesting you go into debt, impregnate easy becky, or get addicted to hard drugs. lol.)
I’m not too regretful about the results of my life right now, it certainly could have turned out a lot worse. I would have said I regret not getting into martial arts training in my early 20’s, but we had a lot less research and good information back then as compared to now. My MMA instructor for instance has a collection of permanent injuries largely because of that fact, most instructors/trainers back then just didn’t know any better. Maybe I would have had a similar fate to him had I managed to get what I want and get into training early on.
I’m humble enough to admit that luck has certainly played a non-insignificant role in my life. I think the life trajectory I was following above could have turned out a whole lot worse had I been less lucky. I dunno if I can really blame my younger self though. I had PTSD and no real support system. Hiding in college was literally the only thing young me knew what to do. (and knowing how to commit violence, but that obviously wouldn’t have gotten me anywhere at that point in life) I never had any inkling that I had any potential whatsoever for greatness.
That last part I say can definitely be the biggest trap for Chadcels. One of the few credit I give my college experience is giving me enough feedback (and time to discover you) to wake me up from that. But it took me literal years of having anti-game to make the realization. Maybe if I had opted for a short vocational course, I would have failed to make that realization.
Pardon my rambling. Like I said though, at least my life turned out on the better side compared to a lot of my peers.
Speaking of Chadcels…might be another useful keyword for you to revive some more interesting and insightful threads. Thank you as usual, Aaron.
I had the chance to play Rouge Flight on PS5 with an exceptional monitor and sound system and was super impressed. It’s like a modern take on Star Fox: https://youtu.be/6Md08eSKHSw
The art style of this game is great. It seems to be made for VR, but given the fast-paced nature, it may easily trigger motion sickness.
I do not see anything VR related when I search the game, but it does have a cockpit view. I was recently thinking more about this game and realized there might not be a single game in this genre that surpasses Starfox 64 overall. Another game, however, worth checking out within this genre is titled Ex-Zodiac. It’s like an homage to the SNES era of Star Fox.
During my dive into arcade history I came across some nowadays pretty unknown titles that Nintendo and other companies seem to have taken copious inspiration from. Namco’s Starblade (1991) seem to have been the blueprint for Nintendo’s Starfox (1993). Namco’s arcade hit Alpine Racer (1994) apparently inspired a whole slew of skiing and snowboarding games in the late 1990s, including Nintendo’s 1080 Snowboarding (1998). Konami’s Thrill Drive (1998) most definitely inspired Burnout (2001). Namco’s Aqua Jet (1996) seems to have inspired Nintendo’s Wave Race 64 (1996). The release dates are quite close but Nintendo surely had connections to Namco, and Namco, as other arcade developers, normally location-tested their games months, sometimes close to a year, before release. Most interestingly, not even the allegedly highly innovative Nintendogs (2005) seems to have a been a stroke of genius on Nintendo’s behalf as there was a Sega-published arcade game, Inu no Osanpo (2001), that is centered around walking dogs. My exploration of 1990s arcade games has been a really fascinating journey through history. During that time, game companies were innovating like crazy, trying to stay afloat while game consoles were taking over the market.
That’s very interesting gaming history analysis. One could perhaps make the argument that the death of the arcade cabinet marked a tremendous deceleration in gaming innovation on the whole. Certainly alternative explanations coexist, but without revolutionary arcade inspiration to draw from it could be argued that gaming has become much more homogenized, as developers have instead resorted to pulling ideas from each other to the point of something akin to gaming singularity.
I think a big issue is that even in the mid-1990s, it only took a small team and a few months to put out a well-polished and focused game. Companies could observe each other and react quickly. There is an interview in which some Sega guys spoke about how much of an impact Ridge Racer (1993) had on them, completely obliterating Virtua Racing (1992), which led to them working like crazy on Daytona USA, releasing a demo version in 1993 and the final release in 1994, which became one of Sega’s most successful arcade games. (I think that Ridge Racer is the better game.)
In the 2000s, there was a lot less money to be made in the arcade. In fact, you can make the observation that the longer companies remained invested in the arcade industry, the worse they tended to perform. Nintendo got out in the early 1980s already, for instance. Sega went overboard in the 1990s, investing a ton of money into their very expensive Model 1/2/3 boards. Meanwhile, Namco put out Tekken on hardware that was derived from the PlayStation. In the early 2000s, a successful arcade game sold a few thousand units. Yet, in the 1990s, a successful game sold ten times as much. There is also the most curious trend that today’s arcade games are quite frequently ports from PC or console games, not the other way around. Crimzon Clover and Rolling Gunner, for instance, were ported from PC. Guilty Gear first appeared on the PlayStation and was then ported to the low-cost Sega Naomi. Caladrius Blaze was ported from the PS3.
In the 2000s, arcade games completely fell off a cliff, sadly. I have yet to explore some early 2000s games, like the Initial D series, but otherwise I find little appeal in this time period. I have recently begun reading the manga Initial D and like it quite a lot. Otherwise, I probably would not even bother with looking into the games. There is also the problem that all arcade game genres peaked within a few years and then declined. This happened to platformers, beat ’em ups, shmups, fighting games, racing games, light-gun games, puzzle games, etc. At some point, there is the problem that the games are extremely refined, yet demand a level of mastery that is far above the ability of even an above-average gamer. Cynically, you could also argue that once you have played the one or two best games of their respective genre, there is no need to play anything else because their skill ceiling is so high that you cannot ever plausibly master them. Once a genre has been perfected, where do you go, both as a player and a developer? You can plausibly make the argument that the best arcade platformer is Ghouls and Ghosts (1988), the best beat ’em up Final Fight (1989), the best 2D fighting game either Street Fighter II CE (1992) or Super SFII Turbo (1994), the best shmup Dodonpachi (1997) or Dodonpachi Daioujou (2002), the best racing game Rave Racer (1995), the best light-gun game Time Crisis II (1997) and the best action-puzzle game Tetris The Grand Master 2 Plus (2000). There is a hard core of gamers who have been playing these, and other titles, for decades. This may be the main reason why arcades declined, i.e. the various genres simply ran their course.
“In fact, you can make the observation that the longer companies remained invested in the arcade industry, the worse they tended to perform.”
I’d love to know how much net profit a cabinet sale would generally yield. Hell, even SNES carts were quite expensive to manufacture compared to discs, and now we have digital only format (though Steam, for example, takes around a solid 30% of revenue from each sale). Nintendo, however, has their own very minimalist store site where they can take advantage of third party sales while gaining massive profits from their first party games. It also seems to be the case that Nintendo wishes to transition to a fully digital format soon.
You seem to have a massive amount of knowledge related to the history of gaming!
I went on a few MPH-powered online excursions on the history of arcade gaming in the last few months. Also, over the last 12 months or so I have made a serious effort at getting better at these games. Thus far, I have racked up 38 1CCs (individual games). If I count separate modes, my count is 125, i.e. 125 1CCs across 38 games. For instance, clearing Street Fighter II with Ryu and Chun-Li counts as two separate modes. In some games, you need to make quite an effort to clear them with different characters or game mechanics, so the latter approach is not as redundant as it may seem. These numbers may sound like a lot but once you have figured out a particular genre, it does not take that much effort to clear multiple games in it.
Jesus! That does sound like a lot. Were any of them shmups? If not, then how difficult do you think shmups are in comparison to arcade-style fighting and racing games?
The shmup 1CCs I did not even include as these were easy modes in Cave games. There some I recall that I cleared (= 1CC’ed) and others I am not so sure, such as Mushihimesama on Original mode. I also cleared Storm Blade many years ago. I want to clear Progear and Dodonpachi at some point, though. Shmups are probably the most difficult genre out there. That being said, based on what I have read, a survival clear on Dodonpachi should take about 20 to 40 hours of practice whereas people normally need to invest well above 100 hours to clear Tetris the Grand Master. The latter sound even crazier if you consider that you can recover from bad moves in TGM but in shmups you often cannot.
Getting first place in all modes in Ridge Racer and Ridge Racer 2 is quite challenging. If you manage that then clearing, albeit not at first place, other racing games is quite straight-forward. There are some racing games I managed to 1CC on my first try, and got first place after having put in a modest amount of effort. I am quite proud of first place in Indy 500, a nowadays rather obscure Sega racer of which you cannot find a lot of footage online. Sadly, there are a lot of people online uploading videos of rather unimpressive performances. Here is a guy who has uploaded a lot of videos, including one of Indy 500, getting third place (my best time on this course is about five seconds faster):
For first place, you need to play pretty flawlessly and understand the mechanics well, i.e. using slipstream to gain speed and then precisely overtaking. It is a real thrill, and I had to figure this out myself because all online information I found was rather unhelpful. There are a lot of people online who do not understand the games they play. I have come across people claiming, with an air of authority that some racing games was “bugged” because you cannot catch up to the number-one car, no matter how well you drive. Well, you can if you understand slipstream mechanics. I have come across people who stream racing games, with a focus on older arcade and console games, and I had to ask myself what they are even doing. I frequently get better times, playing with my PS3 controller, than they get with their professional wheel-and-pedals setup. In short, there are a lot of people with uninformed opinions out there. The older the games you play are, the more skeptical you should be towards online information. The amount of garbage on Gamefaqs and Reddit is mind-blowing at times but if you do not have enough first-hand experience, you may not be able to sniff this out.
Side note: I’ve been using my MPH very sparingly, mostly for work. The reason being is because my psychiatrist is unable to prescribe controlled substances across state lines. I could have someone pick it up and mail it to me which may be feasible, but I’m more than 1,000 miles away from the state in question so I’m rationing the drug for work hours right now just in case. I would really love to be able to do my music part-time on MPH right now though.
Can you get your psychiatrist to prescribe more than one bottle? Mine does this so that I do not need to come in so frequently. I get a prescription for two to three months these days. It would be enough for two months if I took it basically every day but as I normally only take MPH three to five days a week, there is a generous buffer. Also, I like knowing that I have enough supply at home even if I cannot get an appointment on short notice or my psychiatrist falls sick. Most importantly, I do not want to be in the situation where I need to ration MPH. If I think I have a day ahead where I could benefit from 2 x 20mg, I just want to be able to take it and get on with my day, without having to first check how long my supply will last. This may sound as if I am an addict, but I took two two-week long breaks recently. I had no cravings at all.
To put the difficult of shmups vs racing games in context: A shmup requires you to play well for twenty to forty minutes. In a racing game, on the other hand, you need to perform well for only three to four minutes, and the margin of error is also higher. That being said, there are some really challenging parts in some racing games where one mistake inevitably ruins the run. The last segment of the most difficult course in Ridge Racer and Ridge Racer 2 is an example: You need to go full-speed down a winding road with concrete barriers on both sides and if you touch them, however slightly, you lose so much speed that you will no longer be able to win the race. It is a real thrill, though, and the most fun I have had in gaming in a long while.
The difficulty of fighting games varies widely. Older ones rely on on you figuring out weaknesses in the patterns of your opponents, like in SF II, but in newer games you basically enter a long string of rock-paper-scissor contests and winning is quite dependent on random chance. Also, some fighting games have absolutely ridiculous final bosses. SNK is infamous for them. There is also the problem of input reading, i.e. your moves have a delay of a few frames but not the moves of the CPU-controlled opponent, thus certain moves will always get punished. One strategy is to bait the CPU into certain responses. If you have grown up with SFII, you probably think this is fine but it is really poor game design. There is a reason why fighting games went on a long decline in the late 1990s and never really recovered.
On the topic of MPH, it’s not an issue with the psychiatrist but rather the pharmacy. The psychiatrist actually wrote me a script for 90 days at a higher dose even so that it would last me even longer. I was thrilled that he trusted me enough to do so. The problem is that the pharmacy would only fulfill a 30 days supply at a time (technically granting me 45 days worth). I think the issue here is that the pharmacy automatically looks up and applies a customer’s insurance information, so most of it has to do with the insurance company. You apparently, according to anecdotal research, can’t even request to waive the insurance and pay out of pocket to avoid this issue as it is frowned upon for whatever reason. Another factor may have to do with the Controlled Substance Act at the federal level, but if that’s the case then the psychiatrist should have foreseen this issue. In any case, the arrangement we have now after the initial first 30 day trial run is that I should generally be granted a 90 day script before needing a reevaluation.
On the topic of shmups, the only ones I’ve been able to clear on “medium” difficulty so far are horizontals such as Drainus and Rolling Gunner. The former of which I was able to do a 2 loop no death clear on arcade mode at least one time, while getting the 1CC on several other occasions. That is, unless you count mobile shmups which are quite broken from the perspective of the ship’s mobility (I don’t count these as true hard mode 1CC clears).
I’m still intending on beating DMC. I haven’t played it in about 2 weeks for a few reasons, though I’m excited to get back into it soon. I foresee going on a character action bender with DMC3&4, while eventually replaying 5 at some point as well as completing the Ninja Gaiden trilogy and Bayonetta 1&2. I also intend to beat MGR:R on hard mode at least twice.
My goal is to not purchase anymore games and focus on the ones that I have and to focus more on music. It could be a couple years before I buy another video game at this rate. I also have dozens of other games in my backlog to get to.
Sweden, yes: In an attempt to get unfettered immigration under control, the Swedish government is prepared to offer the equivalent of $60k to everybody who leaves voluntarily. Of course, this amount of fully repayable if these people return. But what will happen if these people claim to have no money? Will they then get another $60k if they promise to leave and never to return?
https://archive.ph/EL7aX
Amusing is the comment that citizenship cannot be revoked. Why is this the case, Björn? These cucks do not even realize that they can simply change the laws and govern the country however they seem fit.
Those Scandinavians appear way too humanitarian to simply start looking out for their own best interest. Even if it means that they’re basically getting reverse Viking-ed in the meantime.
The movie Twister was recently mentioned and I watched it the other day: it is one of the dumbest movies I have ever seen, but I can certainly see why it was a commercial success. There is also a recent sequel, Twisters (2024), which I was told was “completely non-woke”. Yet, in the first two minutes you see five characters: two white women and three diverse men. I guess this qualifies as being totally based in Clown World.
I’m surprised they wasted money on talented actors like Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. That movie was purely special effects and completely unrealistic. One of those 1990s movies that were all special effects and zero story (Independence Day, Men in Black, Titanic etc.). It was the start of what got us where we were today in “cinema.”
Without well-known lead actors, Twister would probably not have been taken seriously at all, and it would have gone down in history as one of the biggest box office bombs in history. Back then, it was still important to have big names attached to blockbuster releases. I agree that their acting talent is completely wasted on this movie. In the sequel Twisters, the lead actors were no longer that well known, nor particularly competent. Glen Powell is an absolutely horrible actor but you have to give him kudos for making bank with a perma-smug smile. This is not an easy feat. I read that he was paid $1.5m for that role, which is obviously a lot of money, but the budget of the movie was over $150m. He got paid chump change. It seems safe to assume that Bill Paxton got more than 1% of the total budget of Twister.
The capital of VA is kind of a shit hole. Blacks also make up around 45% of the total population. Even the Latin folk and Asians seem much rougher than in TX, for example.
Also the amount of fat asses is incredible among the adult population. Absolutely stunning. I’m talking morbidly obese. This 40 year old woman was talking to me about her recent heart attack and was proud to state that she had a BMI of only 27 (it was definitely a but more than that). I was thinking to myself…”bitch, that’s fat!”
I thought about how rare it is to see a woman with a really great ass. This thought entered my consciousness the moment one such woman just so happened to appear right in front of me. There is an increasing trend among young women to once again show their bellies, though. Sadly, a lot of women following this trend seem to have little self-awareness. By and large, though, it seems that (young) women are getting a bit slimmer again and spend more effort on their appearance.
Men of culture only: https://youtube.com/shorts/T6JFMq3BRPY?si=K95ZmFkLCLhVV778
Videos like that are very important for for the progress of humanity. You may also enjoy the young scholar V who worked tirelessly on establishing the theoretical foundation on how to cartwheel into a handstand. Furthermore, she did groundbreaking work in the burgeoning academic discipline of Bikini Yoga, a field in which she is widely regarded for her contributions. Pool-side bikini yoga is her specialty. Her peer Mila Klein is a well-regarded authority on Lingerie Yoga, and should not be ignored. Last, but certainly not least, there is the very talented Mila Sobolov. Unfortunately, she seems to have stopped producing yoga movies and instead nowadays makes money by posting videos of herself getting cocks shoved into every one of her orifices on OnlyFans. It is not quite clear how she ended up going into porn, after posting tame yoga videos, but reality is stranger than fiction.
One of the great tragedies of our era is that many female yoga scholars toil in obscurity, with only scant artifacts giving any proof that they ever existed. For instance, here is a very promising young woman who seems to unfortunately have left the field before becoming known to a bigger audience. She shall be remembered as yellow-slip girl. Her biggest impact on this field was establishing that the sofa can be successfully used for yoga practice. Furthermore, she is credited with the invention of the so-called “backdoor pose”, which constituted a leap in human evolution as women previously had no knowledge that this pose was even within the realm of the possible.
This is an acceptable topic in mainstream comedy in the US currently: https://youtube.com/shorts/upT_zGM3Zao?si=cRJ5l0HGjAyxbw7z
Hey guys, I’ve been thinking a lot about slut psychology lately andi don’t quite understand it. I mean, it’s always been looked down upon and always will be. It almost always seems to stem from daddy issues, being sexual/physical/emotional abuse, or dad simply not
being there. But what is the direct connection between daddy issues and whoredom? What other problems develop from being a whore? I know a girl who has probably been with 60+ guys but her finances are in perfect order. Owns a nice 2 story condo (paid off) luxury car (paid off). But never, repeat NEVER had a
boyfriend (she’s 52 now.).
Why do daddy issues so frequently and directly lead to whoredom?
How does whoredom lead directly to other problems in life, but not necessarily others like financial (and I’m not talking about gold diggers)
@GoodLookingAndSleazy
I suspect it has to do with validation. Aaron wrote an article on slut psychology, and the common theme was validation.