Journal of Other Forum Analysis

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/saints-row-2022-is-free-on-the-epic-games-store.800325/

Game is dumb fun people and it's free. Give it a go.

It isn’t.

In 2023 this game is not worth your time. It's not even dumb, it's just bad.

Money was not what was stopping me from playing this stinker. I currently have the Epic launcher running and I will not spend the time to accept this game for free. This post took about as long as the process of adding the license to my Epic account and I'm glad I spent that time on this post instead.

[Boredfrom]

i thought the movie was pretty good. my kids liked it as well.

Not everything has to be an all time classic? Or it’s impossible for everything to be an all time classic?

https://www.resetera.com/threads/is-it-just-me-or-is-the-wish-soundtrack-the-worst-disney-ever-produced.800343/page-2

Those poor kids…

Bob Iger has trained a whole generation to accept mediocrity.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

. The Exploited were literally the Nep Nep’s of punk I guess.

[benji]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/what-is-the-first-song-that-comes-to-mind-when-you-hear-punk-rock-anthem.800385/?post=116979477#post-116979477

Not sure what I'd consider a (or the) punk rock anthem, but Johnny Rotten grew into a Brexit supporter and "Britain first" knobhead and Johnny Ramone was a die-hard conservative who thought Reagan was the greatest president ever and that people only had "liberal" views because they were young and hadn't seen "how the world really is", so definitely not anything from the Ramones or Sex Pistols.

I also just really fucking hate Blitzkrieg Bop.

Nothing says "punk" like demanding a lifelong conformity with a politicocultural elite.

edit: Actually, nothing says "punk" like wanting to be part of a continent-wide bureaucracy.

[Venice]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/era-help-me-determine-if-any-of-this-stuff-is-worth-anything.800370/



An actual mod

Never heard of this person.

I guess they’ve just hatched. I wonder how many headmates they have

"Non Binary"

WHAT A FUCKING SURPRISE.

[benji]

PUNK ROCK ANTHEM

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/israel-begins-bombing-of-southern-gaza-following-collapse-of-ceasefire-see-staff-posts-for-posting-guidelines.772478/page-245?post=116987892#post-116987892

I'm arab, so death and destruction is something I'm used to seeing on TV screens and news. What I'm not used to, is the sheer number of children killed here. I pray that a hell exists just for the culprits. To use the tragedy of the Holocaust as a "get out of jail free" card is sickening, and it blows my mind that the irony/hypocrisy isn't slapping them in the face.

                   Inappropriate comparison
 

[benji]

What's the irony or hypocrisy?

[Orange Juice Box]

Did they finally make the globalist cabal and anti-Hamas New York Times a banned news source?  

https://www.resetera.com/threads/israel-begins-bombing-of-southern-gaza-following-collapse-of-ceasefire-see-staff-posts-for-posting-guidelines.772478/post-116992719

User threadbanned: ignoring the staff post on multiple occasions in regards to sourcing

[benji]

No Twitter randoms as sources unless they're trans or otherwise on the right side of history.

[Potato]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/era-help-me-determine-if-any-of-this-stuff-is-worth-anything.800370/



An actual mod

First of all, is this ANOTHER mod that just appeared out of thin air?

Second, that has to be the most generic white bread list of games I've ever seen. I literally have 95% of those games, all of which were bought from bargain bins for peanuts while they were still current.

[Potato]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/do-people-spend-new-year’s-eve-with-their-friends-or-their-family.800361/

I'm spending it alone in a hotel room

With my cat, so family.

I've never really had friends, so I never spent New Years with them.

I used to spend it with my mom, but since she passed I spend it alone.

So I guess Neither will be my answer

This is my content. This is why I'm here.

[AldusMoneyPenny]

I have to wonder... if Nep needed a legally binding contract for something, given the choice between paying a lawyer a hefty sum of money, or having an "AI" generate one that is effectively exactly the same, for free, would she opt to pay the lawyer?

She seems most disgruntled at the fact that her skills are no longer valuable -- no one is taking away her ability to draw. What is happening, is that a free tool is allowing many people to create what they need without having to pay someone to do it. It sucks for the artist but it's great for the general public, who don't want to pay someone every time they need an art asset for something.

Think of how many menial jobs have been accomplished without having to pay someone to do said job, because you can look it up on Google or YouTube, and just do it yourself. You don't need to be a journeyman plumber to replace a sink faucet, and I'm sure lots of people have avoided paying good money to replace a sink faucet by simply using a free tool that shows them how to do so. But, lots of people can't be bothered, and will still opt to pay the plumber, too.

And there's a certain irony on REE, where they blubber on about how "artists" aren't getting paid because of AI art generators, while simultaneously discussing how to circumvent YouTube ads. You can't have it both ways. Either you support people who create content, or you don't. Half of REE is copied and pasted large chunks of articles into the site, basically rendering the link to the article pointless, and profiting off super intrusive ads that litter REE, completely cutting out the journalist and company that produced the content. It's a fucking joke how these points are totally lost on dipshits like Nep and crew.

Perfect example: This article is copied and pasted onto REE -- 9 full paragraphs. Click the link, and can't read the article on New York Times because it's behind a paywall. REE (MOBA) will directly profit off of this content theft, without having done a lick of work.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/nyt-after-rise-in-murders-during-the-pandemic-a-sharp-decline-in-2023.800280/

They also post "free" links all the time or instructions on how to circumvent the paywall.
thatwasdifferent.gif

[Potato]

I’ve changed the ram on my pc without my dad having to step in

 

Oh aye, and another time me and my mates were sitting in The Venue which was a local dive for punks and metal heads. Watty came in and told us to move from the table we were sitting at cos apparently it belonged to him. We told him to fuck off. So he grassed us to security for being underage and we got kicked out. Cunt. He was hard as fuck when I was a little kid on my own, but shit himself when he was outnumbered by a bunch of teenagers.

Oh and then there was that time his shite band ran and begged the pigs to save them from the Livi punks who turned up to the punk’s picnic and were going to kick the fuck out of them. Why am I mentioning this? I don’t know. The Exploited were literally the Nep Nep’s of punk I guess.

Even though I don't like his vocals, I have a massive soft spot and admiration for George Corpsegrinder Fisher. Dude is just a massive cuddly teddy bear who wins loads of stuffed toys and donates them to children's hospitals.

He might sing about dismembering zombies and shit, but he doesn't try to hide behind an image.

[Potato]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/israel-begins-bombing-of-southern-gaza-following-collapse-of-ceasefire-see-staff-posts-for-posting-guidelines.772478/page-245?post=116987892#post-116987892

I'm arab, so death and destruction is something I'm used to seeing on TV screens and news. What I'm not used to, is the sheer number of children killed here. I pray that a hell exists just for the culprits. To use the tragedy of the Holocaust as a "get out of jail free" card is sickening, and it blows my mind that the irony/hypocrisy isn't slapping them in the face.

                   Inappropriate comparison
 

They're not using the holocaust as a free pass, they're using the fact that Hamas murdered and raped hundreds of innocent people, including young people at a music festival as their free pass.

[benji]

Was checking in on one of the greatest moments in games journalism history like I do every few months (and not at all because I was making a joke to someone else so I brought it up to link) and you'll never guess what I found in the comments:

[Gamegirl Nostalgia]

People are still talking about the Israeli counter terrorism operation? That shit was already old in November.

Cringe. 

[Gamegirl Nostalgia]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/us-poliera-2023-ot-2-tapping-the-sign.768689/page-198?post=116976447#post-116976447

[Polident]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/do-people-spend-new-year’s-eve-with-their-friends-or-their-family.800361/

I'm spending it alone in a hotel room

With my cat, so family.

I've never really had friends, so I never spent New Years with them.

I used to spend it with my mom, but since she passed I spend it alone.

So I guess Neither will be my answer

Swear it’s not just rose tinted glasses when I remember old forum culture trying to help these people improve and escape their sad sack lives. Yes, somebody would call them a bundle of sticks, but good advice nonetheless. Less of a misery pit.

[AldusMoneyPenny]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/era-help-me-determine-if-any-of-this-stuff-is-worth-anything.800370/



An actual mod

The same people who lambasted Mr. Beast for asking his fans yo straighten up his store displays if they see them messy, now requesting free labor from a position of power? They ain't slick

[malfoyking]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/us-poliera-2023-ot-2-tapping-the-sign.768689/page-198?post=116976447#post-116976447

Good luck to him. I'm sure Trump will obviously not just drop a nuke on Gaza.

[Not an Alt Account]

You won't believe what the first joke on Chappelle's new special is about.

hint: 

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

[NekoFever]

Rolling Stone: Dave Chappelle’s ‘The Dreamer’ Is Another Barrage of Trans Jokes

[malfoyking]

Rolling Stone: Dave Chappelle’s ‘The Dreamer’ Is Another Barrage of Trans Jokes

Completely forgot about it. Thanks rolling stone.

[Not an Alt Account]

You should thank me, buddy

[Nintex]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/us-poliera-2023-ot-2-tapping-the-sign.768689/page-198?post=116976447#post-116976447

Good luck to him. I'm sure Trump will obviously not just drop a nuke on Gaza.

Don't worry he's sending Jared instead and they wouldn't nuke free real estate or the construction zone of Trump Tower Gaza and the Abraham Golf Resort  

Very few people know about the anime betrayal going on right now because the libs are too obsessed with what Trump is saying that they don't pay any attention to what he doesn't say.
There is a growing group of power brokers that want to take Gaza out of the hands of Hamas Real Esate and hand it over to Saudi Arabia instead. 

The #FreePalestine crowd believes Israel wants to own Gaza but they don't. They can barely balance their budget now, they can't afford to occupy, secure let alone rebuild it. Plus they'd paint a big target on their own heads so they can forget about developing the infrastructure needed to exploit the gas fields. They also can't destroy it because no one wants to open the borders for the refugees. It is also why Hamas is refusing the Egyptian peace deal and trying to cling to power. They know that the UN/PLO reconstruction effort will be far more favorable to them so they just need to stall for time until a poorly funded UN peacekeepers outfit comes in to replace the IDF.

Same for these guys. Trump needs to win the election and sign a peace deal between Israel and "Palestine" in celebration of the new king of Saudi Arabia(MBS) and everyones favorite President. US forces and the IDF will then of course 'help' their new Saudi allies with the security of the Gaza reconstruction efforts.

Blinken is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The Biden administration wants the UN to take the lead on this but Iran/Russia do everything they can to keep the conflict going and the UN won't go in until the IDF stops bombing. Meanwhile both the pro-Israel and #FreePalestine crowd are angry that they aren't doing enough one way or another.

[Snoopy]

With the Mickey Mouse IP copyright protection expiring in 2024, do you think someone will try to make a game that looked like Epic Mickey concept art?

This has to be bait.

[BIONIC]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/“you’re-not-a-‘real’-fan”-max-dood-on-hyperfan-behavior-gatekeeping-snobs-etc.799104/page-2?post=116999691#post-116999691

So yeah, this is a topic that I've written quite a bit about on ERA and something I've been subject to before from a few fan bases.

I think one of the issues is that in nerdy circles, the No True Scotsman fallacy is so entrenched that many don't realize their doing it or in some cases is encouraged by the environment. Like many of the users I've seen posting in this thread I know are guilty of doing it... Including myself, it's very easy to do it without realizing it.

The first time I ever personally experienced this was decades ago, it was an article on io9 I think about Macross/Robotech and about some issue they were having and I wrote in the comments about why don't they just release some Macross anime in the west if they need money. I did not know about the Harmony Gold situation when I wrote that... I soon quickly learned about when I suddenly found myself getting attack by two fronts from REALLY angry fans.

Microtransactions, Battle Passes, lootboxes etc I've seen over and over cause this reaction. If you criticize them, talk about the exploitive nature or them of the mental health effects, you're not a "true" fan because you're not putting the hours into it! Same with games that are built around guilds or just "community" in general, this mentality is not only encouraged, but normalized to the point that bullying/harassing players/teammates/guild members for "failing" to get an item that could have been 0.5% or playing the "wrong" character is considered good.

Hell the very idea of a "core" audience is built around that like if you're not "part" of the FGC, you're a "casual", not a real fighting game fan regardless of how much you like fighting games because you don't like fighting games "correctly". Question, who gets to decide who is a casual? Why? This is especially true when you get to the point that enjoying Smash Bros or MK rather then SF, SNK games makes you a "casual". It's why I really have the terms hardcore and casual.

But even then, it manifests in smaller ways, especially when it comes to genre critique. From the mentality that some works aren't "deserving" of deep analysis or are inherently lesser than [Insert the commentator's favourite genres] or in some cases, weirdly used as a defence for their favourite work. See the "It's just cosmetic!" defence for microtransaction, a snobbish dismissive argument that downplays and undermines the importance of art direction, aesthetics etc to defend their favourite game from critique.

Not so long ago, their was a thread wanting to discuss how the subject of slavery was handled in Star Wars when it came to droid, something that SW has discussed and brought up many times in both Canon and Legends. This brought out a ton of weirdly defensiveness from some fans who thought that the very idea of analysing and debating the deeper aspects of Star Wars was bad because "It's just a kids work!" or something like that... And these weren't haters of Star Wars, these were people DEFENDING IT by... Basically saying it's lesser art not worthy of critique... Huh. And I see this all the time with a lot of popular media whether it's Ubisoft's "Not political" Tom Clancy Political thriller shooters or MCU fans etc.

And over the years, most of it comes from two places, insecurity and ego.

The latter is obvious, the person or group sees anyone failing to meet their perceived standards or likes is not a real fan and not worthy of respect... Even when they themselves don't meet up to their own self-imposed standard, see that one angry guy on online matches that blames everyone else for losing when they themselves was playing terribly.

The former though is what I think the less obvious because it manifests in so many ways of the two but it hard not to notice when you see it and I feel Dood falls slightly into in this video as well. One common way it can manifests is being insecure with sharing your fandom space with people different to you, whether that being younger audiences, women, POC, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities or just having different opinions. To me so much of the "hardcore" gamer mentality comes from creating this mental wall that "I'm the real fan, not these people who have intruded in OUR space!" and is in part why I feel the gaming community has a lot of issues with the Alt-Right because this type of insecurity is REALLY easy to exploit.

The second common way I see it manifest and this is SO COMMON in review discussions is insecurity about the fact that their opinion is not absolute and that anyone who doesn't agree with them is inherently wrong. This is one I believe the game industry itself has encouraged with hype culture because so often this manifest for works that haven't been released yet and like the above one, is often manipulated to attack people like reviewers who DARE to discuss social issues or being a woman, trans, a POC etc. [SIZE=18px]"She DARED give something I've built in my head and has been enforced through marketing, FOMO and my community as the NEXT BIG THING EVER a 7/10!!!! FUCK HER, SHE DESERVES TO BE HARRASSED! OH AND HER PUBLICATION (which means her because I don't know how publications work) GAVE X GAME HIGHER, WHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????"[/SIZE]

The final one is insecurity of being seen as "that" type of fan. What that "type" of fan is varies but it nearly often comes across as gatekeeping or getting angry for enjoying something wrongly, often deliberately going into discussion to attack people for enjoying or participating fandom "wrongly" we saw that with that Star Wars example I brought up as an example.

And let's be honest, most of what I've described (and no I'm not throwing Dood into this group) is aimed at people who aren't white straight men. That's where a lot of this comes from, espcially in the gaming community. People who are insecure sharing spaces with with women, POC, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people etc, people who see their communities "under attack" so lash out.

Their is nothing inherently wrong in creating fan art, fan songs, fan fiction, fan games, cosplay, write video essays/reviews, shipping, deep analysis, quotes, search for Easter eggs, making tech specs etc etc etc. Many fans do these and have fun doing it and don't hurt anyone. It only becomes bad when you then lash out on others which is often itself usually done because of insecurity itself.

I love making fan rosters or discussing the internal logic of fictional worlds with my friends which some fans would consider me enjoying these works "wrongly", makes me a bad fan or no better then people who harass others and that really fucking hurts. And this goes to extremes like, "Someone sent a death threat to a dev therefore ANYONE who has anything close to a critique of this work is pro-harassment!" which obviously no and often just comes across as fanboys using it as an excuse to attack people they don't like.

Dood focuses on shipping in the video, but ignores that shipping by itself isn't bad and is often used by MLM and WLW to discuss and fantasies that we rarely get because so often, WLW and MLM are often treated as lesser, less real or the source of controversy because X movie dared to show two men kissing for 1 second. Most LGBTQ+ fans who engage in this aren't toxic (and in my experience often the source of adorable fan art) yet are often used as scapegoats and harassed, attack and threatened for. That because these shippers were arseholes attacking people, they must be arseholes as well so must be kicked out and harassed.

Like it's no secret that shipping is dominated by women and as such like with cosplay and other forms of fandom dominated by women, been treated as lesser by "real" fans for decades, looked down upon and frequently called "fake geek girls".

And also related to the video there's this bit:


Okay. And? This is where I feel Dood himself falls into the trap because unless those people are being toxic and attacking others, what's actually wrong with learning every line from a game or movie or looking for every bit of info about their fav piece of work, nothing about that is bad. Same with the, "I have not even replayed my favourite game 10 times!". Like so what? What are you saying about people who have? That their bad fans for playing their favourite games more than you? It can become bad but as someone who's autistic who does love obsessing about details and learning new info about my favourite works, how about fuck off with that gatekeepey shit yourself.

Like I really feel he undermines his own argument because it comes across as "My way of engaging fandom is better" which no, no not really, that's just snobbery and just a form of gatekeeping. You can easily just throw that back and say spending 10+ years streaming, podcasting etc about fighting games is overly obsessive and engaging "wrongly" with the material.

Not every fan wants to meet the devs, not every fan who remember details you don't is a toxic "hyper" fan. That's just your own insecurities showing. There is no "right" way to be fan and no single right outcome. Hell some companies hire people like that to help with continuity or end up working for the franchises they loves and help create them, often leaving easter eggs for fans like them like we see in the Star Trek works. Are they "lesser" fans for engaging in it differently from you? Are those devs/creative/journalists less deserving of sympathy when their passion for the work is exploited or aren't paid correctly because of some editor/publisher telling them to "Do it for the art" or "Exposure" because they engaged with fandom more than you?

Like that's mentality that is often used to justify attacking fans for engaging "wrongly". I've had that mentality thrown at me so often for criticizing objectification of women in fighting games, that I'm engaging in them wrongly and I should just shut up and stop being "No fun allowed." I see this all the time with fans wanting to seem more diversity in fantasy or their favourite works, handling of sensitive topic like sexual abuse or have critiques about accessibility issues etc because "It's disrespectful to the creator's vision!" or some other reason. Like this is the mentality used against reviewers who discuss social issues in games in their reviews or the story or anything fans consider "unimportant".

EDIT: Okay wow I did not mean that to be so.. . Big, sorry for the wall of text.

[HaughtyFrank]

It's extra funny because you know deep down this is just about an Internet argument about whether Cammy is gay or not

[malfoyking]

That very first joke was fantastic lol. Jim Carrey and Andy Kauffman!